As taxpayers start paying an ever-larger share of the nation’s health bill (as they clearly will under the Dems’ health reforms), pressure will mount for Uncle Sam to see that folks live healthy lives. There’ll be two key rationales for broader sin taxes and other ways to control lifestyles:

* They promote “wellness.”

* They make those living “unhealthy lives” bear the medical costs of their “reckless” behavior.

Certainly, the nation’s “nannies” — those who seek to run lives — will push these arguments. And they’ll have a point; after all, why should, say, a non-smoker pay for the lung-cancer treatment of someone who insisted on smoking all his life?