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  A New Leaf: Tobacco in America Broad tobacco bill looks comatose |
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The poll data provides evidence bashing the tobacco industry may not be as much of a sure-fire political winner for the Clinton administration as strategists had assumed.
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ASKED WHETHER CONGRESS should impose an additional $1.10 tax on each pack of cigarettes and force tobacco companies to pay penalties if teen smoking did not decline, Americans appear to be split, with 47 percent saying Congress should pass the bill and 46 percent saying Congress should reject it. Another 7 percent responded that they aren’t sure. A huge majority — 70 percent — says the anti-tobacco legislation is motivated mainly by the desire of Clinton and Congress to raise tax revenues in order to have more money for the federal government to spend. Only 20 percent of those polled thought the bill was motivated mainly by the desire to discourage teen-agers from smoking. The new poll data seem to refute the conventional wisdom that the public is eager for a punitive approach toward the tobacco companies. |
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Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said that the bill was “too tough” on the tobacco industry, while 32 percent opined that the bill was “about right” in its treatment of the industry. Only 19 percent said it was “too lenient.” BASHING BIG TOBACCO FIRMS The data provides evidence that bashing the tobacco industry may not be as much of a sure-fire political winner for the Clinton administration as strategists had assumed. Other surveys have shown that many Americans believe smokers are primarily responsible for their own behavior. A survey by the Gallup organization last year showed that few Americans (28 percent) support the idea that cigarette companies should be held legally responsible if they are sued by the families of smokers who died because of smoking-related diseases such as emphysema. A majority of those questioned by Gallup (52 percent) concurred with the idea that because cigarette companies put warning labels on cigarette packs, they are absolved of culpability for smoking-related illnesses. In the last few days, Clinton has tried to ratchet up pressure on Congress to pass the anti-tobacco bill crafted by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. The McCain bill would:  Force tobacco firms to pay penalties if smoking by teen-agers did not decline by specified amounts. For instance, tobacco firms would have to pay $1.6 billion if teen smoking rates declined by 20 percent over the next five years, instead of hitting the specified target of 30 percent. Ban the use of human images, animal figures or cartoon characters in cigarette ads, except in adult magazines. Impose new regulations restricting the size, color, number and placement of ads in stores. Require the industry to pay up to $506 billion over the next 25 years in the form of “licensing fees,” basically taxes, on each pack of cigarettes sold. Restrict civil suits against tobacco companies.On Monday, Clinton said “the tobacco industry will doubtless raise objection after objection and will work behind closed doors to persuade Congress to pass half-measures that will not reduce teen smoking. But I believe the majority of the American people ...will see this for what it is — a tobacco industry smoke screen.” Clinton added, “We have an opportunity and an obligation now to put aside politics [and] to turn aside the pleas of special interests.” But while calling for everyone to “put aside politics,” it would be hard for Clinton to be oblivious to the political reality: In the 1995-’96 election cycle, the tobacco industry gave more than 75 percent of its $3 million in political contributions to Republican candidates. |
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| Actors such as Leonardo Di Caprio have become targets of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton for smoking on camera. | 
On Monday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich gave Clinton new ammunition for sniping at the GOP when he said smoking by teen-agers “has nothing to do with Joe Camel,” the icon formerly used by Camel cigarette manufacturer R.J. Reynolds. Instead Gingrich identified as the teen-smoking culprit such Hollywood films as “Titanic” that include scenes of characters smoking. Clinton fired back that “teen smoking has everything to do with Joe Camel — with unscrupulous marketing campaigns that prey on the insecurities and dreams of our children.” On Tuesday, Clinton charged that Gingrich and other GOP leaders were lapdogs of the tobacco industry. Clinton said that there had been a “dramatic change” in the attitude of Gingrich and Republican leaders who had at first indicated a willingness to raise cirgarette taxes. But, said Clinton, “the tobacco industry says they don’t like the McCain bill and they refuse to negotiate any further ... and all of a sudden we get different public statements coming out of people in important positions in the Republican Party.” PRESIDENTIAL CIGARS But Clinton’s own occasional fondness for a cigar became an issue Monday as Gingrich accused the president of sending the wrong message by celebrating Judge Susan Webber Wright’s recent rebuff of the Paula Jones lawsuit with a cigar. Clinton told reporters that “I think the only time I’ve done that since I was president was when we got that young man [Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady, who was shot down in 1995] out of Bosnia.” Clinton conceded Gingrich was “probably right” about the need for him to not appear to condone tobacco use by being photographed with a cigar in his mouth. But Clinton added that Gingrich was wrong “to contend that that isolated event has a bigger impact on children than these millions of dollars of deliberately calculated ads.” Echoing Gingrich, Clinton complained that “there are too many young actors and actresses in alluring movies in Hollywood making smoking look alluring again.” The president mirrored the position of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who used her newspaper column last summer to scold both Julia Roberts for smoking cigarettes in the film “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and Will Smith for smoking a cigar in “Independence Day.” The first lady declared that “Movie stars who puff away on the screen equate smoking with status, power, confidence and glamour.” President Clinton said Tuesday that Vice President Al Gore had personally appealed to Hollywood movie moguls to censor film scenes of characters lighting up a cigarette. ALTERNATIVE TO MCCAIN BILL Republicans have shown new signs of being willing to resist the McCain bill. Senate Republican Whip Don Nickles of Oklahoma said Tuesday he will try to combine teen smoking and anti-drug measures in one piece of legislation, as an alternative to McCain’s bill. “You don’t have to have hundreds of billions of dollars switch hands to try to combat youth tobacco and drug use,” observed Nickles. House Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas wrote in Wednesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal that the McCain bill’s tax increase on smokers “is unwise, unwarranted and unfair.” He argued that “working-class Americans, those who already have a tough time making ends meet, will be hit the hardest by an increased cigarette tax.” With hostility to any tax increase deeply rooted among House Republicans, it may not be possible even for a politically popular President Clinton to whip up enthusiasm for the anti-tobacco measure. New evidence of the president’s popularity came in the NBC/Wall Street Journal survey: 66 percent of those questioned said they approve of his performance as president. One-third of those surveyed agreed with the statement that Clinton “is doing a good job as president, and I respect him personally,” while 45 percent agreed with the statement that “he is doing a good job as president, but I do not respect him personally.” A smaller number — 19 percent — said they neither thought that he was doing a good job nor did they respect him as a person. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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