Orrin Hatch

Most of the evidence points to a relatively high total price elasticity of tobacco consumption among teenagers. But those estimates could be exceedingly optimistic. How young people would respond to large changes in the price of cigarettes…

This study found, after excluding those already smoking in eighth grade, that the effect of price on the probability of starting to smoke by the 12th grade was essentially zero. The Congressional Budget Office made the following comment…

Having set out the 1998 IOM study, I compare its tone and ask the Senator if he agrees with the April 1998 CBO report called ``The Proposed Tobacco Settlement: Issue From a Federal Perspective?'' Now, this CBO paper examines the literature…

Is the Senator aware of the Congressional Budget Office report reviewing many of the same studies relied upon in the earlier 1994 Institute of Medicine study, and in the 1994 Surgeon General's report entitled ``Preventing Tobacco Use Among…

In fairly categorical language, a price hike in the $2 range is characterized as a ``proven way to cut youth smoking.'' In fact, it almost sounds like the $2 per pack comes right out of a mathematical formula. The more something costs, the…

Raising the prices of tobacco products is a proven way of reducing tobacco use in the short and medium terms. Price hikes encourage the cessation and thwart initiation. Higher prices have the added benefit of reducing use among people not…

Does the Senator agree we should come up with a comprehensive package of mutually reinforcing policies, that if we come up with a package at all, overreliance on price strategy could be misplaced?

Would the Senator agree, in my view we can be most successful in meeting our public health goals by coming up with a ``basket'' of antitobacco policies that would include price increases, counteradvertising, public education, enhanced…

Price is undoubtedly a key factor. I hope I have reviewed some of the key data, and I ask if the Senator does agree with me that we should not overemphasize price alone and, so to speak, put all of our eggs into that one price basket?

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 Senator aware it is unclear if such an analysis is focusing on tax receipts made to the Treasury or the actual at-the-cash-register price?

I ask the Senator, isn't it reasonable to question that a difference between the $1.10 tax and the $1.50 will not necessarily mean 800,000 premature deaths?

Those figures sound impressive at first, but we need to stop and question how applicable such a study is for a complex adolescent social behavior and for the price increases we are debating today. Are there not limits to extrapolating this…

If you listen closely to the debate, you will hear some assert with mathematical certainty that we need to increase the tax on cigarettes by $1.10 a pack, or $1.50 a pack, or by $2 per pack to get the maximum health impact in terms of…

Is the Senator aware of the widely-cited findings that for every 10 cents that the price of tobacco goes up we can expect to see a 7-percent decrease in youth smoking?

Let me bring to the Senator's attention, during that same period, U.S. youth smoking decreased by 40 percent. So much for that argument of the Senator from Massachusetts. Were you aware of that?

I believe the Senator will remember, if he will, that Dr. Frank Chaloupka, who testified before the Judiciary Committee, has written: ``Youth and young adults have been found to be less responsive to price than older groups.'' Is the…

Dr. DeCicca's analysis is even more compelling when you look at our principal target, those kids who never smoked. He found that the effect of price on the probability of starting to smoke by grade 12 was essentially zero, zip, zero; that…

Is the Senator aware there is domestic and international evidence that such a price increase will worsen problems for law enforcement officers and lower-income taxpayers? Now our colleague from Massachusetts showed a chart of Canadian…

Of course, everybody knows that the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts and I share a common goal of reducing youth smoking, as evidenced by the Hatch-Kennedy bill which was enacted last year. That bill added an excise tax to reduce…

Let me just show you this chart in connection with my next question. It is one thing to talk about Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom as some have in this body. It is entirely another thing to talk about the United States of America…

Could I also ask my friend another question? Those who are arguing for a $1.50 price increase are saying there will be no black market, that there will be no smuggling any consequence. Is it not true that after California raised its excise…

They say that when you extrapolate out the $1.10 price of the Commerce Committee bill--or the managers' amendment as I think we should call it--the actual price tag could range as high as $868 billion, because the $1.10 number is based…

Is the Senator aware that, frankly, there is no way of getting voluntary protocols under this bill that would resolve the constitutional issues involved in this bill, especially with regard to the look-back provisions, the ban on…

This is not some itty-bitty bill. This involves as much as $860 billion, according to some. Is the Senator aware of that?