Don Nickles: “I said, all of this money would be going into the trust fund. That was the way it was designed as it passed the Commerce…”

“I said, all of this money would be going into the trust fund. That was the way it was designed as it passed the Commerce Committee initially. The Commerce Committee now says the net revenues from this large payment goes into the trust fund. This chart says ``Industry Payments.'' That is not correct. It is consumers' payments. Consumers are going to be paying every dime of this tax. Granted, they have a section in here that says industry, companies, you pay this amount. But they also have a section in here, on page 189, that says the tobacco companies must pass the cost on to consumers. . . . an amount sufficient to pass through to each purchaser on a per-unit basis an equal share of the annual payments to be made by such tobacco product manufacturer. . . . In other words, consumers, you have to pay every dime of this, every single dime. This is not paid for by tobacco companies. This is not a tax on tobacco companies. This is a tax on consumers.”