Tom Harkin: “A lot of people might say: My gosh, Senator Harkin and Senator Feinstein and Senator Durbin, a dollar a pack is a lot of…”

“A lot of people might say: My gosh, Senator Harkin and Senator Feinstein and Senator Durbin, a dollar a pack is a lot of Federal tax on a pack of cigarettes. But this chart shows the history of the Federal excise tax on cigarettes going back to 1950. Shown on this side of the chart would be for 1950. At that time, the Federal excise tax was 49 percent of the average wholesale price for a pack of cigarettes--49 percent. Today, it is 14 percent. So those who say that a dollar a pack on that is too much, I point out it only brings it up to 30 percent of the average wholesale price of a pack of cigarettes. That would be 30 percent; and that would be less than what it has been many times in the past. So it is not out of line with what we have had as a Federal excise tax on cigarettes, as I said, going clear back to 1950. Then all the way up until about 1983 it was more than 30 percent of the average wholesale price. So this is not out of line. But what we get for this, as has been pointed out, is we get $30 billion over 5 years to invest in health research, wellness, prevention programs, anti-obesity programs, smoking cessation programs, and keeping our people more healthy. Plus, we also get out of this amendment about $9 billion in deficit reduction.”