WASHINGTON -- Ten years ago, Sen. John McCain took on the tobacco industry, saying he would never back down from legislation to regulate the industry. He also supported a $1.10-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund programs to cut underage smoking. "I still regret we did not succeed," he said as recently as last October.
Now, McCain's longtime effort to crack down on tobacco is being put to a new test, according to a report in the Boston Globe. Within weeks, the Senate is expected to vote on legislation to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. McCain agreed months ago [image-nocss] to cosponsor the current bill with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, but McCain's policy adviser said the senator won't commit to voting for it until he sees the final legislation.
McCain has also dropped his support for increasing cigarette taxes. Last year, McCain voted against legislation that would have used a 61-cents-per-pack tax to expand a children's health program. He told a television reporter earlier this year that he would have a "no new taxes" policy as president, the newspaper report stated.
McCain's decade of work on tobacco, one of the most significant efforts of his congressional career, has earned him enmity from the industry and from some fellow Republicans over the years. At the same time, public-health advocates have celebrated his support of tobacco regulation. But now, some antismoking activists are disappointed that the presumptive Republican nominee for president has backed off from the tobacco tax, which they consider key to improving public health.
Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said McCain's support for regulating tobacco has been notable because of his "passion and commitment. … He devoted countless hours to it." Myers's group has labeled McCain "one of the good guys" on the issue. But Ron Pollack, president of Families USA, a nonprofit healthcare advocacy group, said it is "disingenuous" for McCain to oppose the 61-cents-per-pack tax for the children's health program when he supported the $1.10-per-pack tax in the 1998 tobacco bill. "He very much trimmed his sails on that," Pollack said.
When asked during a policy forum in October why he opposed the tobacco tax for the children's health program, McCain seemed to reject the logic that taxing tobacco would reduce its use and instead suggested the government would be profiting from a dangerous practice.
"Now help me out here: We are trying to get people not to smoke, and yet we are depending on tobacco to fund a program that's designed for children's health?" McCain said. "I can't buy that."
The two Democratic contenders, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are supporting the current proposal for a 61-cents-per-pack tobacco tax to expand the children's healthcare program, a tax increase McCain opposes, making it likely that the matter will become an issue in the campaign this fall.
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