Tobacco Settlement from $120B to $10B

Justice Department drops Big Tobacco penalty by $120 Billion
by Chris in Paris – 6/8/2005 03:49:00 AM

It’s Christmas time in June! Or is it a surprise birthday party? Who knows but the Justice Department is no longer asking the tobacco industry for $130 Billion to combat the 50 year industry-wide conspiracy against smokers and without reason or explanation, they have lowered the penalty down to $10 Billion. This is the same case that Ashcroft and the GOP tried to dump a few years ago. Karl Rove had been a paid consultant to Philip Morris in the ’90s and Bush and the GOP have raked in millions from the industry. Hooray for freedom and demoracray!

"It feels like a political decision to take into consideration the tobacco companies’ financial interest rather than health interests of 45 million addicted smokers," said William V. Corr, director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "The government proved its case, but the levels of funding are a shadow of the cessation treatment program that the government’s own expert witness recommended."

And I’m sure that the contributions to the Bush Campaign had nothing to do with this.

Ya know, I’m from North Carolina, and we take Tobacco seriously there. I’ve always believed that people should be responsible for their own actions, and if they continue to smoke given all the known health issues, the assume the responsibility for whatever befalls them. I don’t like smokers, and do like that we’re are taking cigarettes our of the places I have to be, but if you want to do…go knock yourself out.

However, this was a previously agreed to statement. The tobacco companies agreed to the $130B figure, and now that there’s a repub in the White House, they get a break like this…if this were a Democratic administration, Congress would be voting in impeachment by Friday.