Clinton Suggests Tougher Anti-Tobacco Legislation

Planning to take his anti-smoking campaign straight to the heart of tobacco country, President Clinton assured cigarette makers Saturday that he does not want to bankrupt them even as he suggested that a tough, $506-billion anti-tobacco bill needs to be tougher.

“We still have work to do on this legislation. Above all, we need to put in place tough penalties that will cost the tobacco industry if it continues to sell cigarettes to young people,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address. It was the third time this year that he used the national broadcast to push for legislation to stop tobacco companies from doing business with American youngsters.

Cigarette companies, crying potential bankruptcy, balked at legislation approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last week that would impose significantly higher costs and harsher penalties than the industry negotiated in a proposed settlement with state attorneys general last June.

“We’re not trying to put the tobacco companies out of business. We want to put them out of the business of selling cigarettes to kids,” Clinton said.

The Senate committee bill, primarily written by Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), would cost tobacco companies $506 billion over 25 years, increase cigarette prices by $1.10 per pack by 2003 and force changes in cigarette advertising practices. Government penalties for companies that continue to hook young smokers would be capped at $3.5 billion per year; the industry’s liability for damages in lawsuits would be capped at $6.5 billion per year.

An even harsher alternative, which Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) plans to offer on the Senate floor as amendments to the McCain bill, would exact up to $10 billion per year in penalties.

The president also used his radio broadcast to chastise the House for failing to pass drunken driving legislation. The House Rules Committee blocked a vote last week on a stricter nationwide standard for drunken driving offenses.

In the GOP response, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) accused the White House of stockpiling attorneys at taxpayer expense to handle the president’s personal legal matters.

Campbell said his research found nearly 100 lawyers and legal assistants working to defend Clinton.