Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Smoke Out Who Is Behind Gift to Big Tobacco

(A Lung Destroyed By Big tobacco)

The George W. Bush Justice Department has just declared war on all families who fight to keep their children away from the addictive habit of smoking. This supposedly anti-drug president, clearly has no problem with aiding producers of one of the most lethal drugs in America.

According to The New York Times the Justice Departmenthas has decided to seek $10 billion for a stop-smoking program in its lawsuit against the country's largest cigarette companies, in lieu of the $130 billion suggested by one of its expert witnesses. Once again, experts are brushed aside for sleazy political favors.

"It reeks of an administration whose heart isn't really in this case," said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, at a news conference with other Democrats who suggested that Justice Department officials with ties to the tobacco industry might have grown uncomfortable with a large financial demand as part of the government's case against the companies.

According to The Times, the payments would cover a smoking cessation program. The $130 million figure was based on a recommendation from Dr. Michael C. Fiore, an lead expert on the harm caused by tobacco, who claimed a nationwide program that has a telephone hotline, treatment and counseling, as well as funds for advertising would cost $5.2 billion a year for 25 years.

"Why, in the middle of a lawsuit, would you give up, which is exactly what this administration has done?" said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. "Was it because of the power of the tobacco lobby? Was it their close connection with people within the administration? Was it the fact that they'd never had the stomach to tackle this special interest group in Washington?" He added, "I think it's all of the above."

The Times article also said Rep. Henry Waxman,D-Calif., released a letter asking for an investigation into whether improper political considerations had led to the change in request and what role might have been played by Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr., a former classmate of President Bush at Yale and partner in an Atlanta law firm that represented one of the defendants in the case, R. J. Reynolds.

This whole scam stinks worse than a smoky nightclub full of slobbering lushes at 3 AM. It is time to smoke out who is behind this tawdry giveaway to Big Tobacco at the expense of America's children. Once again, in Bush's America, Big Business wins over the health of families.

4 Comments:

is that a picture of a lung or Bush's heart, on second look, it must be his BRAIN!!!

Gary in NJ
posted by Anonymous, at 6/09/2005 12:32 PM

Smokers a vile. Thank God they banned those unhealthy menacing pigs from bars in California. They bitched and whined and said they would never go out again. But thier stinky, smelly, asses are back. Hahahahha. I'd never date a smoker. Gross, dirty people!

Dan I.
San Francisco
posted by Anonymous, at 6/10/2005 12:40 AM