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…

If data were unequivocal on the price issue, as some have already argued, or will argue, in this debate, how is it that the Congressional Budget Office--I ask the Senator this --felt compelled to so carefully qualify what some characterize…

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…

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…

Now, tobacco analyst Martin Feldman, who actually did the economics on this based upon an extensive model, unlike the Treasury Department, who was willing to testify and face cross-examination before the Judiciary Committee, testified…

Our colleague from Massachusetts, for whom I have the greatest respect, would lead us to believe that all public health experts advocate a $1.50 price increase to reduce teen smoking. There has never been a U.S. price increase of this…

I have one final concern about the chart displayed by our colleague from Massachusetts on tobacco use and price. That chart ended in 1991. It did not include any data since then. I want to show you this chart again. This chart shows the…

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 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--and I apologize to my colleagues. I do want to get through this, because this is important. The distinguished Senator has raised these issues. He deserves a lot of credit. And, secondly, I point out that the other…

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…

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?

I have a series of questions I want to ask. I did enjoy and appreciate the questions asked by the distinguished Senator from Texas, because he raised a lot of very important points that were brought out in the Judiciary Committee's…

All right. Our colleague from Massachusetts also suggested we can use the Canadian experience to predict American youth behavior. If true, then American and Canadian youths smoke for the same reasons-- peer pressure and status. Many…

This study is crucial because it is perhaps the only scientific study tracking the smoking behaviors of the same kids over a period of time. All other studies have relied on a cross-sectional analysis of unlike communities. Now, is the…

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?

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?

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…

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…

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…

Let's be honest here. There are many uncertainties here. We are talking about tobacco price increases never before contemplated or experienced in our country. But as we listen to this debate, I think it would be wise for all of us to heed…

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…

All right. Why do you think the polls are showing that by a decisive 70 percent to 20 percent margin the public thinks the Congress is more interested in the revenue and spending side of this tobacco legislation than we are in the public…

Does the Senator remember back in the late 1980s when the American people made us repeal the catastrophic health insurance legislation, the same public considered and soundly rejected the Rube Goldberg-inspired, Ira Magaziner-designed…

So if this price increases that we are talking about here, way above the $368.5 billion, do not bring the tobacco companies on board--and the tobacco companies say they are not going to come on board--then, basically, we are going to have…