Tobacco Documents Online

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD J. MARKEY ON THE INCLUSION OF AN INCREASED TAX ON TOBACCO IN COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION BEFORE THE COMMITTF..E ON WAYS & MEANS U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTAZTVES NOVEMBER 19, 1993

J Mr. Chairman, thank you for providing me the opportunity to come before the Committee to express my enthusiastic support for President Clinton's proposal to increase the excise tax on tobacco as part of his comprehensive health care reforni proposal. According to the Centers for Disease Control. four hundred and thirty-five thousand_ _ Americans die each year from conditions linked to the fact that they smoke. Forty thousand _ nonsmokers die every year from exposure to secondhand smoke. The American Cancer Society estimates that cigarette smoking causes 85 percent of the cases of lung cancer in men, and 75 percent of the cases in women. Lung cancer is the number one killer of women in the United States. In addition, numerous estimates have put the cost of smoking to our health care system at upwards of $50 billion a year. Even here in Washington we call that real money. To quote the AMA, "Tobacco is a legal product that is deadly when used as directed." And yet tobacco is less stringently regulated than food, prescription drugs, cosmetics, or alcohol, even though it kills more people each year than alcohol, illegal drugs, homicide, and suicide combined. I have argued that we should subject tobacco to the level of health and safety regulation demanded by a product as dangerous as this one. I will continue to argue this. Here in Congress, we should stop listening to those of our colleagues who have been convinced by the false economics of the tobacco lobby, and we should pass legislation to stringently regulate the production, labelling, and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products: We should charge the Food and Drug Administration -- which already regulates nicotine gum but does not have oversight over cigarettes -- with strict enforcement of these regulations, and we should collect fines from those who do not comply and use the money to better educate Americans about the terrible dangers of smoking. It is my strong desire to enact legislation of this nature during the 103rd Congress. At the same time, I believe that there are two important reasons to include a substantial tax on cigarettes in whatever financing we develop to support comprehensive health care reform: • First, we must do something to keep the 3,000 young people who begin smoking each year from making this tragic mistake, and give Americans who - already smoke a reason to quit; and 00 CD • Second, we should use the substantial revenue raised by this tax to offset the w tremendous costs that cigarettes bring to our health care system. CA O W ~O

I In my mind, either of these arguments, taken alone, is reason enough to include the tax in health care reform. Taken together, I believe that these arguments make it clear that this is something that we must do. In 1984, almost a decade ago, the Surgeon General reported that "...cigarette smoking is the chief, single, avoidable cause of death in our society, and the most important health issue of our time." Scientists have found that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin, and the Environmental Protection Agency has classified environmental tobacco smoke as a known carcinogen. How can we talk about preventive health without talking about getting people to stop smoking? The time has come to take aggressive steps to prevent young people from starting to smoke, to encourage Americans who smoke to quit, and to make a clear connection between the health care costs caused by smoking and the price of a pack of cigarettes. In June of 1990, the Wall Street Journal found that "83 percent of voters would favor increasing alcohol and tobacco taxes." The nation's health care system is in crisis. Cigarettes are making things worse. It's time to listen to the 83 percent of Americans who know that it's time to raise the tax on tobacco. Thank you.