Don Nickles: “I agree totally. And I also tell my colleague and friend from Texas, I wasn't part of the tobacco companies' deal. I am…”

“I agree totally. And I also tell my colleague and friend from Texas, I wasn't part of the tobacco companies' deal. I am part of the Finance Committee. And I think if we are going to legislate on taxes, we ought to do it right. This is not the right way to tax. I will also tell my colleague from Texas, I have heard people say the tobacco industry is confident they can challenge these look-back assessments and win in court and have it thrown out as unconstitutional. Regardless of the constitutional argument, I say this is a crummy way to tax. I don't want to give the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to conduct a poll and then determine that the poll is accurate, proper, correct for purposes of this act, and be able to make assessments. Under the agreement the tobacco companies agreed to, it was up to $2 billion. Under the bill that came out of the Commerce Committee, it was $3.96 billion. Under the bill the administration wrote and introduced on Monday, it came up to $4.4 billion. And on the amendment we have pending now, it is $7.7 billion, also indexed for inflation. The industry did not sign off on any $7.7 billion look-back.”