Tobacco Documents Online

f11Wtt 1 5 1VUS ?iarctn 12, 1993 5:30-6:00 AK(ET) ABC-TV ' WorldNews This Morning I i Aaron 8rown, anchor:. The clinton administration has made it pr.;.tx clear how it feels about tobacco; it's banned s: oking at the FThite. House. And Congress is on the s'am: track, considering legislation now that would ran smok; ag in all federal buildings. Of more concern to t'he: ubacco companie& is a proposed increase iw the tax on.4--ach: pack of.cigarettes. Here's ABC's Walter Rodgers. Walter Rodgers reporting: Some of'those in Congress,, proposing a dollar increase in federal cigarette taxes, would', clearly like the tobacco i ustry to go he Way of'tbese black--and-whitc movies. Representative Kike Andrews (,Democrat, Texis) : That would be f'ine. I hope we -discourage every young teenager from taking up smoking,.Rodigers: Anrlrews 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 healt2a, caere costs fr= cigarette smoking running t'we_nty-four billion dollars a.year, raising cigarette taxes may be an idea whose time has come. Senator Bill Bradley (;Democrat, New .Tersey): The purpose is to assure that ttaere "s adequate money to try to take care of those: of Americans who get' sick every year becaus-~ eV soke. Rodgers: But the tsobacco lobhsvwields plenty of cloutt in this town, and"they spent close to a million dioslarss last year electing candidates who they hope are sympathetic to their message.. Tobacco Indiust.ry Spokeswoman: (unidentif ied) : Smokers already pay their, fairshare. They pay thirteen billion dollars in,taxes that, non-s'mokers don't. Rodgers.: This latest debate over cigarettes seems not. so much a question: ofeconomics.as an assault onsmoking, itselfl. spok+eswoman: Some of these folks are,Wery clear'that they want to make amoking so expensivo through an increase in their tax that the smoker pays that the tobacco industry would go out of bus'iness.. Anti-Smoking Activist (unide.ntified),s. She represents a product that kills.a thousand Americans every day. Rodgers: The president's budget director hastalked about as much as a two dollar increase in the cigarette tax. And with antl-smoking hostility afoot, some•increase in cigarette taxes now seems inevitable. Walter Rodgers, ABC News, Washington.. COwa wxb1