Defeat Of Oregon Tobacco Tax Ballot Measure For Insurance

Two editorials on Thursday addressed the defeatof an Oregon ballot measure that would have increased the state'scigarette tax by 84.5 cents per pack to fund health coverage forchildren in families with incomes up to 300% of the federal povertylevel. Summaries of the editorials appear below.

• New York Times:The defeat of the Oregon children's health measure "is a testament ...to the shamelessness of the nation's big tobacco companies," which"spent an obscene amount of money on deceptive television ads designedto protect their profits, even at the expense of poor children,"according to a Times editorial. Tobacco companies "didnot win by disputing the urgent health care needs the initiative wasmeant to address or the benefits higher cigarette taxes would bring bydeterring smoking," the editorial continues. Instead, they "sought tohide behind a benign-sounding front group called Oregonians Against the Blank Check" and encouraged "doubts that the funds raised would actually be used for children's health care," the Times writes. According to the Times,"The referendum said a lot about the power of money in any election andnot much about what the public thinks about the issue if given accurateand balanced information." The editorial concludes, "The vote shouldneither deter Congressional Democrats from continuing to confrontPresident Bush on expanding children's health care under the SCHIPprogram nor discourage other states from trying to do more to take careof the health of their children" (New York Times, 11/8).

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