Mike Thompson: “I think that the premises on which this legislation began were faulty. And I think they still are. I think it is…”

“I think that the premises on which this legislation began were faulty. And I think they still are. I think it is basically the premise that in order for us to express our hatred for the tobacco companies and in order for us to express our love for our children, we must pass a tax increase in excess of $800 billion a year over a 25-year period, which is three times our annual defense budget. That, Mr. President, is a faulty premise. It is based on the faulty premise that we can raise taxes and raise the price of cigarettes to a point that it will discourage youth smoking; we can raise it high enough to do that but not so high as to create a black market. I understand that one out of every five packs of cigarettes sold in the State of California today are black-market cigarettes. It is based upon the premise that if you will raise prices of cigarettes that the youth of America will substantially decrease smoking, even though there is no evidence to indicate that.”