Smoke ’em if you got ’em.

Flopped5.org is a great new site setting fire to the First 5 California program that taxes cigarettes 50 cents a pack to fund programs that supposedly help kids. First 5 is paid for by Proposition 10, which actor/director Rob “Meathead” Reiner tricked voters into backing in 1998 with Proposition 10.

Flopped5 writes:

“Flopped 5 exists to provide an uncompensated and independent view of the First 5 Commissions, also known as the California Children and Families Program….

“Based on wide and deep reviews of available information, it is our opinion that the California First 5 Commission is a ballot initiative experiment that has flopped,  contrary to the 100 percent taxpayer paid marketing that attempts to convince voters otherwise. After over a decade in existence, it is our opinion that the Proposition 10 law‘s commissions have offered little to no evidence that they have ‘made a difference’ to improve the lives of children up to age 5. Moreover, we feel it is a law that is structurally flawed and contains improper incentives for public officials and others who both sit on the boards and receive funds”

Here’s some of the waste and abuse by First 5 honchos that Flopped5 found:

* Jelly Belly Factory tours;

* Camping lessons and at least one overnight trip to Big Sur;

* Overnight stay at  the Four Points Sheraton in Pleasanton, CA where couples from San Francisco took marriage workshops and were given $250 in Target gift cards to spend on whatever;

* Holiday party  space rental and the purchase of a costume;

* Monterey Bay Aquarium field trips;

* Halloween party supplies;

* A play area at a foreign government’s consulate;

* Ice-skating lessons;

* Belly Dancing classes for expectant teenage moms;

* $200 per hour to pay a consultant to listen to the radio;

* $4 million was spent on a national cartoon show (KCRA broadcast 11-18-08); funds are only supposed to be spent to support services in California;

* Large comp packages for people who mainly give away public funds and go to meetings for a living (this is just salary so does not include pension/benefits; thus add $50,000 or more). First 5’s top 5 salary grabbers:

— First 5 LA: $248,178;

— Children & Families Commission of Orange County: $247,227;

— First 5 Alameda-Every Child Counts: $181,310;

— First 5 Santa Clara County: $162,289;

— First 5 San Bernardino: $154,714;

* Kern County‘s problems and the exiting of its Executive Director:

— paid $17,000 for a consultant’s new convertible 

They had fun, fun, fun till the taxpayers took the T-bird away.

I’m looking for more great stuff from Flopped5.

All these examples are reason enough to repeal the tax and cancel the whole First 5 program. Let parents, families, churches and other voluntary organizations take care of kids. Government only does harm, beginning with robbing parents through high taxation.

As “Meathead” Reiner’s arch-nemesis, Archie Bunker on the old “All in the Family” show, used to say: We gotta get our prior-orities straight.

(The picture at the top right shows “Meathead” Reiner, the clueless liberal, losing another argument to Archie, the wise conservative.)

— Feb. 22, 2012