by Jane Gravelle and Dennis Zimmerman

About the authors: Jane Gravelle and Dennis Zimmerman are economists at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress in Washington,

D.C. American taxpayers seemed to disagree on almost everything about President Clinton’s health care reform package, with one notable exception. A vast majority favored the proposed 75-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes. Were one to be cynical, such support might be explained by the fact that only about a quarter of adult Americans smoke, so that the majority of us anticipate receiving health care paid for by others. Fortunately, a more charitable—and conventional—explanation exists: that the 25 percent of American adults who smoke impose great costs on nonsmokers, thus a 75-cent tax increase would compensate nonsmokers for these social, or...