Tobacco’s money-grab

If the lobbyists paid to strategize for Big Tobacco wanted an issue that would make their clients look arrogant and greedy simultaneously, they found it in the $50 billion corporate welfare bill that their congressional sponsors hid in the latest federal budget. This hefty piece of pork makes for an easy target for elimination when Congress reconvenes; more troubling, however, is the tone it sets for further negotiation with the industry.

The $50 billion credit against the $369 billion tentative settlement with 40 state attorneys general, according to the Washington Post, was proposed two months ago by about 20 GOP House members from tobacco states. Prompted by industry lobbyists, they urged Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to include it in the budget. They did, filing it essentially under miscellaneous. Clinton administration officials knew about the break, but said they intended to advocate later to increase the settlement figure by an equal amount.

Whether or not that is accurate, everybody knows about the tax break now, and almost everybody sees it for what it is: a shameless attempt to force taxpayers to help cover the medical reimbursement expenses that the tobacco industry claimed it was willing to pay. It shows that while the industry no longer can offer the smokescreen about the addictiveness or harm of its product, it still owns enough votes in Congress to get away with all sorts of mischief.

That is the sobering lesson in what would otherwise be an absurd but all-too-common money-grab. However, still up for debate are provisions that would strengthen authority by the Food and Drug Administration to regulate nicotine, regulations on advertising and further action in the event that the higher prices for cigarettes fail to dissuade enough children from smoking. The government and the industry are going to be negotiating for years to come — what faith can the public have that any of it will be done honestly?

From the beginning of the settlement with states, advocates for reducing teen smoking have said the tobacco industry had not gone far enough to change the nature of the industry or its advertising. The hidden tax break is ample proof of that, and should place the settlement in jeopardy.

States should be eager to re-open talks and include plenty of new restrictions on Tobacco to keep it from sending its bills to taxpayers. Taken as a warning, the $50 billion budget item could be a temporary and relatively inexpensive lesson for future negotiations.