Bills Call for FDA Regulation and Tax Increases on Tobacco

A bill poised to move through Senate committee would give the Food and Drug Administration the same authority over tobacco products it now has on food, drugs, medical devices and other consumer products.

An identical bill in the House and the Senate version both tout wide bipartisan support. It had been expected to pass through the Senate Health Committee Wednesday, but was delayed because of the all-night Iraq war debate.

The bill would allow the FDA to regulate levels of nicotine, tar and other components. Supporters say this could help save lives by making it harder to start smoking and easier to stop. Those who oppose the legislation contend that removing certain smoke constituents won't make a safer product and to place more emphasis on prevention.

Elyzabethe from the blog Yellow is the Color takes a crack at explaining the behavior of smokers and of those trying to regulate:

How stupid do they think people are? Nobody these days thinks cigarettes are safe. They smoke anyway, but they know it’s not “safe.” (although, when you look at it from the general persepctive of public health fascists who think the government needs to regulate all behavior, you can kind of see how this mindset makes sense; it’s absolutely mind-boggling to them that people sometimes engage in risky behaviors because they’ve weighed the costs and benefits and decided to engage in that behavior anyway; no, it makes much more sense to assume that the public is a bunch of silly, uneducated morons decieved by Big Something — business, tobacco, Planned Parenthood, Pharma — who need the gentle hand of Uncle Sam to prevent them from having decisions to make).

For the record, I don’t really have any particular problem with the FDA being given regulatory power over cigarettes; I was actually kind of surprised to find out they didn’t already have it. The only part of the legislation I really have problems with is the banning of certain flavors of cigarettes in some sort of misguided attempt to “protect the children” (maybe because I give the anti-smoking people too much credit, and think they’re not really idiotic enough to believe the clove-cigarettes-are-extra-desirable-to-kids tripe and are really just trying to slowly chip away at smoking being legal in the first place, much like anti-abortion advocates and the “partial-birth abortion” ban).

Separate legislation in the Senate is calling for a 61 cent increase in federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes, money that would go toward children's health insurance.

Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters:

Sin taxes get a lot of support, but only to the extent that they actually work. For instance, the increase on cigarettes will probably not raise that much of an outcry, mostly because the tax increase is much more modest. It will not put manufacturers out of business, much as some members of Congress would like. Therefore, it will actually raise the funds Congress projects.

But the same Senate bill could place a maximum tax of $10 per "large cigar", meaning any stogy is subject to the tax except for the tiny ones that come in cigarette-like 20 packs.

Ed Morrissey again:

The whopping $10 per cigar limit, on the other hand, will kill the cigar industry. No one will pay $15 for a $5 cigar. Some might not have an issue with that, but cigars are not the same as cigarettes. They don't get smoked in the same way or in the same quantity, and they do not have the same addictive qualities and harmful additives of cigarettes. Nevertheless, it's quite apparent that Democrats want to kill the cigar industry with this ridiculous tax.

The President has said he would veto this bill if it were to pass.

-Dippold

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