   |  | Published Thursday, May 14, 1998 |
| | Published Thursday, May 14, 1998 |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., announced that he will oppose the proposed national tobacco settlement, calling it " nothing more than a huge tax increase."
" When I ran for the Senate four years ago, I made this one simple promise during the campaign, and that is that I would never vote to increase taxes, " Grams said at a Capitol news conference Wednesday. " Now, the prospects of tobacco legislation would do just that -- increase taxes on those who use tobacco products."
The Senate is scheduled to vote next week on legislation that would increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1.10 by 2003. It also would force tobacco companies to pay $516 billion over 25 years into a fund for sick smokers and anti-smoking programs, restrict tobacco advertising and cap liability claims against the industry at $6.5 billion a year.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chief sponsor of the tobacco bill, said its goal is to stop the 3, 000 children who start smoking each day.
Grams contended the bill won' t accomplish that objective.
" It' s not about protecting kids from tobacco, " he said, " because if it were, the dollars the federal government collects would go to kids. It' s not about Big Tobacco making big money; if this legislation were phased in, the federal and state governments would be making more on the sale of the product than the manufacturer would. And it is not about health care, because the money collected is not being earmarked for Medicare.
" The proposed tobacco legislation is nothing more than a tax increase, a way for Washington to collect (and) spend more."
Grams was joined at the news conference by Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., and by leaders of several conservative organizations that oppose the measure. They include the National Taxpayers Union, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy, American Conservative Union, Cato Institute and Americans for Tax Reform.
Despite their opposition, the bill has strong bipartisan support. It sailed through the Senate Commerce Committee on a 19-1 vote on April 1.
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