Orrin Hatch: “I believe both intuitively as a parent and grandparent many times over, and from examining the data, that if we raise…”

“I believe both intuitively as a parent and grandparent many times over, and from examining the data, that if we raise the price of a product like cigarettes, as a general matter, we can expect children to purchase less of it--at least that is the common economic thought. But having said that, and, after all, it is a simple matter of economics that other factors are held constant. As price goes up, we can expect quantity and demand to go down. I want to take just a few minutes to look behind the actual data of some of the frequently cited studies. Is the Senator aware that a fair reading of the literature suggests we are not dealing with some sort of simple, timeless, immutable algorithm when we are dealing with the price/elasticity issue?”