[PM total disregard continues of it's customers and will pass all this cost onto them.]

"Ethics Group Sounds Alarm on Tobacco Legislation - 'Unholy Alliance' Between Philip Morris and Anti-Smokers

Monday September 22, 5:01 am ET


WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today criticized an emerging deal on Capitol Hill that would provide tobacco growers a one-time payout between $13 billion and $16 billion, while at the same time bringing tobacco products under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)".
Flaherty said, "Let me explain this unholy alliance. After years of fighting FDA oversight, Philip Morris, the dominant tobacco manufacturer, now sees the proposed FDA advertising and marketing rules as a useful tool to punish its competitors and increase its market share. This is a classic case of a big company manipulating government regulation to squeeze its competitors."

In the Senate, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed a bill to provide $13 Billion to those owning tobacco quota allotments in return for ending the current price support system. It is expected that Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Michael DeWine (R-NH) will offer legislation next week that would bring tobacco under the FDA. In the House, legislation provides for $16 Billion, but contains no provision for FDA oversight. Reportedly, House supporters of the bailout plan to leave it out with the understanding that it will be added in a Senate-House conference.

Flaherty continued, "This proposed buyout is a huge rip-off of the taxpayer. This deal is not even a true buyout because the payout recipients would still be able to grow tobacco. It is wrong to characterize these unrestricted payouts as transition funds. Many of the people who hold tobacco quota allotments are not even farmers. For the past 70 years, the government has bestowed the allotments on a favored few, which are treated as a bankable asset. Now, they want to be paid for giving up what was government largess in the first place? I don't hear welfare recipients making the same demand when their benefits end. The people who are really owed something are consumers and taxpayers who have subsidized tobacco for all these years."

"The New Deal era federal price support system should be ended, but not this way. The market should determine production and pricing levels. Consumers should have choices. Government policy should ensure competition, not impede it, or create a monopoly for one company."

"This deal is the worst instance of special interest influence on Capitol Hill in recent memory. It is an enormous policy change that would result in significant costs to consumers. I am alarmed that it seems to be on a fast track with little Congressional or public debate."

Founded in 1991, NLPC's mission is to promote ethics in public life. NLPC sponsors the Corporate Integrity Project."

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