Sen. Mitchell Wants Health Care Bill Tied to Economic Package
Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said Sunday that he would like to combine health care legislation with President Clinton’s economic package because “that’s the best way” to assure both proposals get passed.
And Mitchell, appearing on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” suggested that Congress probably would go along with financing part of the health care program with higher cigarette taxes. But he called a proposed $2-per-pack tax--as being discussed by some Clinton advisers--”unrealistically high.”
Administration officials have acknowledged that additional federal revenues will be needed to help pay for the health care reforms. They have said that so-called sin taxes--on tobacco products and liquor--are among the mechanisms being discussed.
The current federal tax on cigarettes is 24 cents a pack, while state taxes per pack range from 2.5 cents in Virginia, a major tobacco producer, to 51 cents in Massachusetts. A pack of cigarettes on average costs $1.90.
A federal tax of $2 per pack was estimated to produce $35 billion a year.
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