Orrin Hatch

I have no doubt that if the managers' amendment of $1.10 goes through--does the Senator have any doubt that if a managers' amendment of $1.10 goes though, let alone $1.50, that we will wind up with another similar process and problems on…

Is the Senator aware that on one occasion, I was accused-- I won't say by whom--of being a pawn for the tobacco companies, because I want to see this thing work and get it done?

Despite what Michael Douglas said in the popular movie ``Wall Street,'' greed is not good, and it is especially onerous and burdensome when the greed comes from Congress itself.

Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine Center for Tobacco Research and Prevention and Chair of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research clinical practice guideline panel on smoking cessation…

We all know teenage behavior is at best unpredictable. Dr. Warner of the University of Michigan estimated that the 1983 doubling of the Federal excise tax would decrease the number of teenage smokers by 800,000. This estimate fell short by…

This tax increase would take away more than 5 percent of the income of an American making $10,000 a year. Is that correct?

I will take only a few more minutes. While I agree--I will make this clear--that a price increase is an important component of a comprehensive program, the reason I have gone through all this is there is no clear and convincing evidence of…

Is it not correct, I ask my colleague from Missouri, who has been making very important points here during this debate, is it correct that currently smokers with incomes under $30,000 pay almost 50 percent of the tobacco excise tax?

Is the Senator aware of how hard the Senator from Utah studied just exactly what would be the highest amount we could charge and still keep the tobacco companies--yes, kicking and screaming and fighting, and say they are gouged--on board…

If we are going to resolve this matter, it seems to me, and I wonder if the Senator would agree with me, that we have to take into consideration the approximately 50 million users of tobacco products in this society, many of whom are…

I would be happy to--I do not think the Senator from Utah is abusing the rules. I think I have the privilege to ask all the questions I can. I think these have been intelligent questions. I think they have been right on point. I think they…

This is a very large bill, perhaps the largest the Senate has ever considered, at least in recent memory. We need to question its full impact as we proceed. That is the right way to make policy on such an important issue.

I would ask the Senator if she is aware--let me emphasize the $4.50 to $5-per-pack prices that these leading Wall Street analysts projected in testimony to the Judiciary Committee, those prices are much higher than what the Treasury…

I am a member of the Finance Committee and, of course, on that committee voted against the $1.50 increase at the manufacturers level, not because I would not like to punish the tobacco companies, but because that amount is excessive and in…

Now, similarly, Gary Black of Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, told the Judiciary Committee on May 12, 1998, that under the Commerce Committee bill the real price of cigarettes will exceed $5 per pack in 2003. Is the Senator aware of that?

And I would like to ask, isn't it true that the distinguished Senator from California heard the testimony of witnesses saying that if the per-pack price under the Commerce bill goes to $4.50 to $5.50 per pack, there is going to be an…

Martin Feldman of Salomon Smith Barney projects in the year 2003, the Commerce Committee bill, the old bill--but the revised one is the same on the facts--will result in a real price of $4.61 per pack. In nominal terms, this means that…

Who came in and testified about how they threatened him, his life, his family's life, how the city become inundated in organized crime, until they finally had to reduce the size of the excise tax in order to prevent further black…

Is the Senator aware of this comment by CBO in April 1998--and I hope this is in the form of a question that is acceptable to the manager of the bill--about black-market cigarettes: Any legislation that would rapidly raise the price of a…

Is it not true--this will be my last question--is it not true that under the substitute that the distinguished Senator from California and I are working on, that we do not base this on a price per pack of cigarettes, our $428.5 billion, we…

I think that is what I will do, because it seems to me that some of the people around here are afraid to get the facts on this matter. And I have to say that it is highly offensive to have someone come here and suggest that the…

Nineteen percent of whom smoke. Is the Senator aware that one out of five packs of cigarettes sold in California happens to be contraband?

Let me just ask one other question of the distinguished Senator, because there has been some indication here that there is some sort of a game being played in this colloquy between the Senator and myself. It is anything but a game being…

Given that the price of cigarettes is about $1.95 per pack today, it looks like the Commerce Committee bill or this managers' amendment will achieve the $1.50 price hike 5 years ahead of schedule by the Treasury's own estimates. Is the…

I have sought to facilitate a thorough examination of public discussion of the Treasury model so policymakers can better understand why there is so much disparity between Wall Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on critical items like the…