The Washington Post reports that Justice Department attornies concluded their civil racketeering case against tobacco companies by requesting penalty payments less than 1/10th as large as had been anticipated by almost everyone involved in the case, including the tobacco companies. Instead of the expected $130 billion penalty, the government without explanation dropped its request to only $10 billion to be paid out over five years.
The money is slated to fund smoking cessation programs. The American Lung Association says tobacco companies collectively spend more then $12 billion annually to advertise tobacco products. During the five years over which the $10 penalty will be paid, tobacco companies will spend more than $60 billion on advertising.
Tuesday’s announcement was not the first odd turn in the litigation. In 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft tried to scuttle the case entirely. Boston Globe writer Derrick Jackson described the Bush administration’s approach to the case as “waving the white flag.”
Under former President Clinton, the Justice Department sued big tobacco because smoking costs the federal system $20 billion a year in health care costs. Because of the suit, big tobacco threw $8 million into the 2000 elections, giving four out of every five dollars to Republican candidates. As a presidential candidate, George W. Bush made clear his lack of interest in the lawsuit by saying, ”We’ve filed plenty of lawsuits already.”
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There was enough evidence for Ashcroft to continue to give the suit a shot. Instead, he shot it in the foot in a way that surprised even big tobacco.
Justice officials said publicly that they were worried about ultimately losing the suit. By seeing such a weak hand at the outset, big tobacco is already boasting it will not settle for anything at all. ”We are not willing to settle for any amount of money,” said R.J. Reynolds spokesman Seth Moskowitz.
Just because Ashcroft’s sinking of the suit is no surprise does not mean it is not important. In his successful bid to defeat cigarette taxes as a senator, Ashcroft said, ”This is a defining moment for the Republican Party.”
This, too, is a defining moment. Big tobacco paid to put the Republican Party in the White House. The White House has all but dropped the suit against big tobacco. Smoking remains the greatest preventable cause of death in the nation. Rather than preventing death, the Justice Department just played prevent defense for the merchants of death.
Public pressure forced Ashcroft to revive the case after settlement talks collapsed on the first day.
Evidence presented in the government’s case was in many instances identical with that in the legal action taken against tobacco manufacturers by state governments. That case resulted in more than $200 billion in tobacco industry payments to the states.
No Justice Department sources have claimed not to have had sex with that industry. Some critics regard the government’s position as an overt payoff to tobacco companies; others argue that tobacco is an important economic and cultural institution and that the industry should receive reparations from the government to recover the costs and good will lost to an incessant stream of lawsuits and unfavorable government-sponsored advertising.
Justice Department bails out tobacco companies
The Washington Post reports that Justice Department attornies concluded their civil racketeering case against tobacco companies by requesting penalty payments less than 1/10th as large as had been anticipated by almost everyone involved in the case, including the tobacco companies. Instead of the expected $130 billion penalty, the government without explanation dropped its request to only $10 billion to be paid out over five years.
The money is slated to fund smoking cessation programs. The American Lung Association says tobacco companies collectively spend more then $12 billion annually to advertise tobacco products. During the five years over which the $10 penalty will be paid, tobacco companies will spend more than $60 billion on advertising.
Tuesday’s announcement was not the first odd turn in the litigation. In 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft tried to scuttle the case entirely. Boston Globe writer Derrick Jackson described the Bush administration’s approach to the case as “waving the white flag.”
Public pressure forced Ashcroft to revive the case after settlement talks collapsed on the first day.
Evidence presented in the government’s case was in many instances identical with that in the legal action taken against tobacco manufacturers by state governments. That case resulted in more than $200 billion in tobacco industry payments to the states.
No Justice Department sources have claimed not to have had sex with that industry. Some critics regard the government’s position as an overt payoff to tobacco companies; others argue that tobacco is an important economic and cultural institution and that the industry should receive reparations from the government to recover the costs and good will lost to an incessant stream of lawsuits and unfavorable government-sponsored advertising.