Orrin Hatch

I would submit to you that this is the same public that we can expect to watch us closely as we perform our magic on this particular bill. Does the Senator agree with me with regard to youth smoking?

And he talked about how the black market came in with all of the accompanying organized crime and criminal activity to the point where his life was threatened, his family's life was threatened, people were shot at, and all kinds of other…

Sure. They sent them out and brought them back. People are saying there is not going to be any smuggling here, not going to be any black market. They are ignoring hundreds of thousands of police people. They are ignoring the facts that…

Maybe we have never seen the smoking prevalence rates and prices beyond 1991 in the distinguished Senator's chart because smoking rates did not increase when the tax was decreased by the Canadian government. Now, despite emphatic and…

That's why a year ago I worked with the FDA, and we launched this nationwide effort to protect our children from the dangers of tobacco by reducing access to tobacco products, by preventing companies from advertising to our children. The…

If that is the case, why, then, did the President of the United States advocate for a price increase of up to $1.50 over 10 years? What does our colleague from Massachusetts know that the President didn't know?

I think the point I am making here is no matter what we do here will be a price increase. The question is, How far can you increase it without it being counterproductive and producing an overwhelming black market in contraband all over our…

Let me just say this, and ask this question. You know, the very people who are arguing for this $1.50 increase, it seems to me, are the very people who are pricing this bill right out of the marketplace so we cannot get a constitutionally…

I have to admit that I don't appreciate some of the colloquies that have gone on before, but Senators have a right to do so. This is too important an issue for the American public. We need to look at the real facts on such important…

It really is. But we also had testimony from Larry Tribe, on the left, who also basically said this would be very constitutionally suspect. Now, to make a long story short, the very people who are arguing--I will ask the Senator this…

I think the Senator is aware, is he not, that there has to be a way to pay for the program? If you don't have the voluntary consent of the companies, albeit kicking and screaming, then how do you make the bill constitutional in the end? Is…

But its not a narrowly tailored response to say that all use of color, all use of human figures, all use of imagery is banned so that adults can't see them either, and I don't think that could be reasonably defended. Do you remember that?

Is the Senator aware that I have fought the tobacco industry my whole Senate career, and I take second place to nobody as far as trying to get this matter under control?

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…

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…

Was not the Senator there in those Judiciary Committee hearings when these experts on constitutional law from the left to the right said this bill would not be constitutional, would be highly suspect.

Rather, he echoed the President's position. He referred to prices as one of the most cost-effective, short-term strategies to reduce youth smoking. Will the Senator help me to understand their failure to be advocates, if the evidence is…

So the data that is not so categorical as being portrayed by the proponents of this amendment. In fact, the 1994 IOM report noted the conflict, not the consensus, in the data. It noted that that requires further study. On page 188 of the…

Let's look more closely at the 1994 IOM study which is the basis of the 1998 IOM study. A fair reading of this 1994 IOM study seems far less definitive than is being portrayed by some in this debate. On page 187 of the 1994 Institute of…

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?

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…

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…

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…

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…

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?