Editorial: Big Tobacco wins, public health loses

Maybe Americans shouldn't be so surprised.

After all, Big Tobacco has always gotten what it wanted from Congress in making sure that the industry was protected from any nominal regulation, even when countless scientific studies have shown smoking to be a clear danger to the nation's public health. More remarkable is the fact that Congress would fear Big Tobacco despite recent revelations that industry executives lied to Congress and the American people in the past when they claimed nicotine was not addictive. This is also the same industry that through its marketing has targeted minors, trying to hook them for life.

This isn't an industry, then, that conjures up warm and fuzzy images. So how did a vilified industry beat back one of the most significant votes the Senate has faced in years? It's quite simple, really: money. Not only has the industry over the years been able to buy some members of Congress through donations, it also launched a highly effective -- and misleading -- television and radio ad blitz in the past two months, suggesting that the anti-tobacco legislation was an example of big government spinning out of control.

Even though the tobacco ads dominated Las Vegas television and radio stations, both of Nevada's U.S. senators, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, didn't knuckle under to Big Tobacco, as they voted against killing the legislation. But enough heartless members of the Senate, cowering to Big Tobacco, tossed aside their consciences on Wednesday and killed what would have been landmark legislation. The bill would have raised at least $516 billion over 25 years, partly by raising the price of a pack of cigarettes by $1.10 over five years. It also would have given the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate nicotine and significantly hamper the industry's ability to advertise.

"This bill is not about taxes," the bill's chief sponsor, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said shortly before the vote. "It's about whether we're going to allow the death march of 418,000 Americans a year who die early from tobacco-related disease and do nothing." McCain showed remarkable courage in pushing the legislation considering that so many of his fellow Republicans bowed to Big Tobacco's wishes.

President Clinton and others in Congress have vowed that they will not allow this issue to die. It is critical for the nation's public health to pass legislation that will deter teenagers from smoking.

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