Clinton Takes GOP to Task for Defeat of Tobacco Bill

Republican talk of a low-budget alternative to the antismoking bill is just a rush for political “cover,” President Clinton said Friday.

Keeping up his rhetorical attack of recent weeks, Clinton accused the Republicans of playing political games to protect the tobacco industry while ignoring the health threat to children.

Since Wednesday’s defeat of the comprehensive measure in the Senate, there have been suggestions that Congress might pass a smaller, more narrowly focused bill. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) went so far as to predict Clinton would sign it.

“I’m against anything that provides no lifesaving to kids and is designed to save the political life of the people who vote for it, to provide cover, but won’t save the lives of the children,” Clinton said. “I don’t see why we should participate in a charade.”

On Thursday, Gingrich said that next week he would propose a slimmed-down bill tightly focused on discouraging children from smoking by more closely regulating access to cigarettes rather than raising the per-pack price.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said he would try to move a narrower measure through the Senate.

The Senate bill that Clinton supported would have raised the price by at least $1.10 a package over five years. It also would have allowed the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarette advertising and marketing and would have forced the tobacco companies to pay heavy penalties if the level of teen smoking did not fall to a specific level.

Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary, said: “To get the kind of reduction that we want to see in youth smoking, we need to increase the price by at least $1.10 per pack, as you know, and that’s the kind of measure that would be serious.”

Clinton complained that after insisting on--and winning--several major amendments to the Senate bill, the Republicans killed it, “which leads us to believe that they intended to kill the bill all along.”

He has attacked Republican opponents of his approach to the smoking issue every day this week.