Now Congress wants a plan that might actually do something. So we're picking up our marbles and going home. Both the discarded 1997 settlement deal with the attorneys general and the somewhat improved Senate bill boosted cigarette prices by hitting the industry with big annual fees. Congress can do this on its own simply by raising the excise tax on cigarettes. The federal tax already sits at 24 cents a pack and will rise another 15 cents over the next four years.
Researchers generally view price hikes as the single best way to cut teen smoking.
And the tax can be raised down the road if smoking rates don't fall far enough. Goldstone now wrings his hands about the cost such taxes would impose on low-income smokers. Those are the people his products kill. He wants to keep them smoking so he'll make more money. Congress can use the new tax revenue to do just that.