Tobacco Documents Online

-o- i'] A'tt 1 5 lDS March 12, 1993 5:30-6:00 AM (ET) I ABC-TV World News This Morning I Aaron Sra4m, anchor: The Clinton administration has made it pr, ,.ty clear how it feels about tobacco; it's banned s:~king at the White House. And Congress is on the samG track, considering legislation now that would tan smok:aq in all federal buildings. Of more concern to the :.ubacco companies is a proposed increase in the tax on uach pack of.ciqarettes. Here•s ABC's Walter Rodgers. Walter Rodgers reporting: Some of those in Congress, proposing a dollar increase in-federal ci arette taxes, would clearly like the tobacco 1 us ry to go the way of these black-and-white movies. Representative Mike Andrews (Democrat, Texas): That would be fine. I hope we discourage every young teenager from taking up smoking. Rodgers: Andrews is one of a growing numb.r of lawmakers wanting to raise federal cigarette taxes from twenty-four cents to a dollar a pack. With health care costs from cigarette smoking running twenty-four billion dollars a year, raising cigarette taxes may be an idea whose time has come. Senator Bill Bradley (Democrat, New Jersey): The purpose is to assure that therels adequate money to try to take care of those thousands of Americans who get sick every year because Rodgers: But thertobacco lobhsY wields plenty of clout• in this towri, and1they spent close to a million dollars last year electing candidates who they hope are sympathetic to their message. Tobacco Industry Spokeswoman (unidentified): Smokers already pay their fair share. They pay thirteen billion dollars in taxes that non-smokers don't. Rodgers: This latest debate over cigarettes seems not so much a question of economics as an assault on smoking itself. Spokeswoman: Some of these folks are very clear that they want to make amoking so expensive through an increase in their tax that the smoker pays that the tobacco industry would go out of business. Anti-smoking Activist (unidentified):. She represents a product that kills a thousand Americans every day. Rodgers: The president's budget director has talked • about as much as a two dollar increase in the cigarette tax. and with anti-smoking hostility afoot, some •increase in cigarette taxes now seems inevitable. Walter Rodgers, ABC News, Washington.