Tobacco Documents Online

Copyright 1993 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., All rights reserved. ABC NEWS SHOW: WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH PETER JENNINGS' SEPTEMBER 21. 19'93' LENGTH: 3966 words BODY: ANNOUNCER': From AB'C, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, reporting tonighti from Tennessee. PETER JENNINGS: Now to our coverage of health care, which is the reason we came to Nashvillle: to take a closer look at the impactof what is realQy alsocial revolution. It is tomorrow that President Clinton willli make his formall presentation to Congress. But because so much of the plan has been revealed, if not unveiled, there is alreadv some serious debate about whether the Cllintonn team has got, its numbers right and caniactuallypay for all of this. Here's ABC's Brit Hluime. BRIT HUME: Everyone from the President down was trying today to head off a hudd'ing controversy over whether the administration's nurnbers add up. Critiess say it's wildly optimistic for the Whirte House to claimithe plan will cut the def3cit. During a briefing today for radio talk show hosts, Mr. Clinton defended his estimates. PRES. BILL CLINTON: I want vou to understand that we really have killed ourselves, at Icasc to get, the arithmetic right, to give people an honest starting point, a common ground to start from so thar we can have the arguments over policv. BRIT HUME: Almost the entire Clinton economic team was sent out to argue the accuracy of the administration's estimates, especially its claims of how the pian will reduce the deficit. The White Hbuse says it will save $238 billlionn over five years by restraining, the growth of Medicare and Medicaid, andi it sayss it will generate roughly $105 billion in revenue fi•ominew taxes on cigarettes andialcohol. And that, it, says, will end up~allowing a $91 billion cutl in the LEON PANETTA, DIRECTOR, O1VIB: If, in fam we can get all of'these elements passed by the Congress. then we believe we can hit these numbers. BRIT HUME: The problem with those numbers is not that the administration has0 tried to make them as accurate as possible - no doubt it has. The problem is the inherent imprecision in estimating how anything,as massive as t'he: U.S. healrch care economy will react to policies never before tried. Brit Hume, ABC News; the White House: PETER JIENNIiNGS: Still on the subjiectlof where the money will come from, the President says that $105 billion, as Brit reported, will be raised! through what everyone cal'ls "sin taxes," which in the case of health care leads riight to cigarettes. Much of the public appears to think that cigarette smokers should really be pressured. But the guessing is that 75 cents more a pack is

all that they'll have to pay. Here's AB'C's Jim Angle.. JIMi ANGLE: When California raiisedl its cigarette tax by 25 cents a pack back in 1989, it dedicated 20 percent of'the revenues to an anti'- tobacco campaign. ACTOR: [Public Awareness Commerciafl' Here's a picture of Lisa before she started smoking. Here she is now. JIM ANGLE: Over three and a half years, public-awareness programs helped cut cigarette consumption by 8.5' percent. Though, California wanted new revenues, it also wanted to discourage smoking. Now Massachusetts is following suit. It will spend $52' mil'lion - a fourth of its recent tax increase - for ant~i~_smokingg programs. Such efforts are important because a tax increase alone isnlt enough to reduce smoking. DR. GREGORY CONNOLLY„IvIAS'SACHUSETTS DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: You, gzt an initial drop in consumption from the tax inerease; but that you lose over time unless vou come back in with a hard~hitting campaign. JIM AtiGILE: Such as this one in Califorriia. While some smokers quit when taxes ~~o up. others need more persuasion. AtiTI-S VIOK1.'VG, ADVOCATE: Cigarette smoking is as bad as crack. JIM AtiGILE: But redemption isn't the goal of the administration; it's more interested in revenue and inigetting the support of tobacco -state lawmakers. The White House isn't setting aside a single penny from the new tax for anti-smokina efforts. Healthi advocates say that's a mistake. STANTON GLANTZ, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN FRANCISCO: They would be absolute idiots to not include a reasonable tobacco -control campaign as a component of theim overall health care proposal. JIM ANGLE: But for now the administrationi is only after the tax money, passing up the chance to actiively discourage smoking and save tens of billions ini future medical costs. Jim; Angle, ABC News, Washington. PETER JENNINGS: On another subject, a, serious setback for President Clinton todav. who wants Congress to approve the North Ameriican Free Trade Agreement, NAF"I1A. The powerful Democratic leader of the House, Richard Gephardt, said today that he is going to vote against it.We will be back in just a moment. But before we continue in depth from Nashville, a brief fact f le on how this plan willl affect some Ameriican.s, It was America's working,poor who first attracted the Clinitons' attention. Most of them have no health insurance. They wouldl under the Clinton plan. And if they can't afford tolpay even 20 percent of the premiums, the government would. [Commercial break]