Congress has passed legislation that grants President Obama “sweeping government power” over the tobacco.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress on Friday sent to the White House legislation that gives the federal government vast new powers to regulate and restrict cigarettes, the single largest cause of preventable death.

President Barack Obama has given strong support to the measure that for the first time gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to examine what goes into tobacco products, ban those ingredients deemed dangerous to health and limit marketing and sales.

So it’s basically a government take-over of the tobacco industry. If government can control marketing and sales and determine what goes into the product, they’re controlling the industry. Another day, another effective nationalization of a major industry put under Obama’s control.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chief sponsor of the House version, called regulation “the single most important thing that we can do right now to curb this deadly toll.”

More than 400,000 people die every year from tobacco-related diseases, according to government figures. About 45 million U.S. adults are smokers, though the prevalence has fallen since the U.S. surgeon general’s warning 45 years ago that tobacco causes lung cancer.

For some reason members of Congress and President Obama feel an obligation to protect the public from itself, yet feel no obligation whatsoever to protect it from incoming missiles launched by rogue regimes. We can leave our homeland open to an attack from Kim Jong-Il, but God forbid someone actually has to take responsibility in deciding whether or not to have a cigarette.