Califano's Cigarette Campaign: All Smoke and No Fire
Babyak, Blythe
Califano’s Cigarette Campaign: All Smoke and No Fire by Blythe Babyak The story of Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano’s much touted anti-smoking campaign is full of...
...No matter how much we may favor prohibition of tobacco products, weare 300 years too late,” said Bourne...
...I Love This Job...
...But there is Califano, a month after his announcement, testifying on Capitol Hill just to keep the show rolling...
...The White House reportedly was sent a copy of Califano’s opening .sally just half an hour before he gave it...
...After Califano’s big anti-smoking speech members of the White House staff scurried about saying that most of the measures mentioned by Califano weren’t the President’s idea at all and weren’t going to happen...
...Now to make clear what Califano was trying to obscure: his big deal, bring-out-the-bands anti-smoking campaign was not that longlist oftough measures he was asking the FTC and General Services Administration to consider, but merely some regulations about smoking in HEW halls, a small research grant, and an even smaller one for education...
...He’s the consummate ins id er , ” explains a fellow insider...
...The article retold the story of Califano quitting to please his elevenyearold son and then discovering the horrors of smoking (220,000 heart disease deaths and 100,000 cancer deaths yearly are related to smoking as are $5 to $7 billion in health costs and $12 to $18 billion in lost productivity...
...The letters had been sent over from the White House, the official said with a “you know what that means” look...
...We’re very sensitive to public opinion...
...One could understand how, after a speech like Bourne’s, an intrepid HEW Secretary concerned about smoking might have introduced a program I‘iat meant something but tried to pass it off as nothing so as not to raise the White House’s hackles...
...Very Little When You Consider It was only after describing these earthshaking plans that Califano announced what was really the major thrust of his program: $20 million for research into the causes and effects of the cigarette habit-very little when you consider the hundreds of millions spent researching other habits and diseases...
...Yes, the terrible statistics about smoking are true, and yes, the Secretary did lay down some new restrictions on smoking in HEW buildings...
...Califano’s talk about cutting off subsidies sent this force into retaliatory action...
...So the press took the anti-smoking campaign seriously, as if it were what it pretended to be...
...Blyrhe Babyak is a freelance writer...
...But Califano did the reverse-presenting nearly nothing as if it were a bombshell...
...They came up with rather extreme remedies, and we’rejust not goingtojumpinwith both feet,” the source explained, excusing himself for a moment to ask an assistant if replies to the anti-smoking campqign were going out “right away...
...But most projects run into opposition, few circumstances are ideal, and we are judged on how we perform under the conditions given...
...Tobacco means business in Southern states like North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia...
...While at first glance it seems quite stupid of Califano to dash about publicizing his non-program when the President wishes the issue would go away, the Secretary gets alot of mileage out of this maneuver...
...A total of $30 million for a problem estimated to cost us $1 1 to $16 billion yearly...
...Sidney Wolfe, met with the Secretary-designate and urged him to make a major antismoking effort...
...The public, of course, first became aware of Califano’s “vigorous effort against smoking and to protect the rights of the non-smoking majority” from a speech the Secretary gave last January...
...His mock heroics are taken seriously only because the Secretary puts all the famous Califanoenergy into making themlookgood, and becauseso few other politicians can manage the sound and the fury he can, never mind producing results...
...Califano’s anti-smoking adventure started nearly two years ago when Ralph Nader and the head of his Health Research Group, Dr...
...The President also indicated that research would not, as Califano had said, concentrate on helping people stop smoking, but would instead aim to make continued “use of tobacco in the future even more safe than it has been in the past...
...Obligatory measures to reduce cigarette use should clearly be pursued cautiously,” he concluded...
...Stories either cheered a desperately needed attack on a deadly killer, or bewailed the terrors of a new federal invasion of the realm of privatevices and libertiesbut all shared the assumption that the program would affect our lives...
...He wanted $30 million for what he called “the nation’s primary preventable cause of death,”when$250 million had been available for a nonexistent disease like swine flu...
...Second, and most importantly, Califano distances himself from a troubled administration on an issue that’s not important enough to merit his dismissal...
...His “counter-weight” to the half-billion dollars the tobacco industry spends every year on “education”is $6 million...
...Then, without explaining exactly what Califano actually did, the piecegavethe impression t h a t he really did something, the proof being that he got the tobacco interests after him...
...In no time, Califanochanged his mind, and his subordinates were soon putting out a new line-that tobacco subsidies were “too complicated” to tangle with...
...Nor did Carter back up his HEW chief...
...In the House, all but two members of the tobacco subcommittee are from tobacco states...
...Califano padded his speech with anti-smoking rhetoric and tough but hypothetical proposals, while Bourne quoted candidate Carter’s statement that “the American people have been adequately warned” about the dangers of smoking...
...It’s extraordinaryjust one empty thing after another...
...The Man...
...of Experience Califano also burned up the President...
...said the headlines...
...If you compare rhetoric and reality you can catch him in the act...
...Califano repeated all the gruesome smoking statistics for those representatives in favor of antismoking action, while assuring congressmen from tobacco states that “the funding has been minimal...
...Califano is one of the press-happiest fellows in a town where the philosophy is “I’m in the papers, therefore, I exist...
...If he sincerely believed he was doing something, I’d be startled,” said a friend, who also pointed out that Califano still owned a chunk of Philip Morris stock around the time of his confirmation...
...Califano announced that he was banning smoking in certain HEW locations and recommending to the chief executives of the Fortune 500 corporations that they toughenup their companies’ smoking rules...
...Carter thought about it, but not for long...
...A lawyer who makes over half a million a year is plugged in, and Joecan still push some of those buttons now...
...His loyalties are to himself...
...Was the President calling off Califano...
...This is all Joe Califano asked for, and I think that’s all he’ll get...
...Califapo also spoke of forcibly encouraging all HEW-funded hospitals to review their smoking rules, of requesting insurance companies to give special rates to non-smokers, and of creating an HEW-Treasury task force that would investigate raising the excise tax oncigarettes...
...Califano is making war on Carter’s voter base-the old populist coalition of blacks and poor whites,” explains a Washington lawyer long active in Democratic politics...
...Califano is close to alltheold power centers, including the newspaper he represented...
...No doubt they figured that if they played their part in this ritual of punishment convincingly enough, real controls were unlikely ever to be imposed...
...He went on to make a modest proposal for research...
...Califano was, of course, the lawyer for the Washington Post Company, owner of Newsweek...
...White House aides dislike Califano for his imperial, Man of Experience manner...
...Time agreed with Newsweek that on the smoking campaign, “Carter has consistently supported his embattled Cabinet officer...
...And then there is the sheer joy of getting press...
...But, Carter added, “we have only a $30-million budget on tobacco at HEW...
...Later, the President’s special assistant for health, Dr...
...The idea was canned...
...Shortly thereafter, Time weighed in with a Califano cover story...
...Only a few weeks ago Newsweek ran a four-page rave on Califano entitled “Crusading at HEW...
...But, the article concluded, there would be no problem, because“Carter backed up his HEW chief...
...Peter Bourne, gave a speech that undoubtedly expressed Carter’s position as well as Bourne’s...
...We just know who to go to when ourclients need help...
...Ambitious young lawyers are und o u b t ed 1 y studying Ca lifa n 0’s publicity-grabbing ploys in anticipation of their own day in government...
...Is Califano kidding us about his commitment to his campaign, or is he kidding himself...
...An aide had sent the President a memo urging him to extend the moral crusade of the early months of his administration to an anti-smoking campaign...
...While the support system may have been defensible back when tobacco was considered a healthful basic commodity, it’s just a way of buying political support now...
...Despite the link to cancer, cigarette smoking was on the rise and had been for several years...
...Califano indicated that an antismoking campaign should be a top priority, but it took him another eight months even to get around to forminga g r o u p to “’brainstorm” possible approaches...
...But nQ, Califano did not launch the meaningful drive most of the coverage implied...
...His loyalties just don’t run to the President...
...The report that emerged from this group was termed “dangerous” by one HEW source...
...But even after Califano caved in on subsidies and slacked off on some other proposals, the tobacco people kept after him, howling and complaining as if his little program were actually threatening their interests...
...The supports were meant to be a temporary measure that would get farmers through the depression-not, as it has turned out, a subsidy that benefits the large growers most while giving the small farmers just enough to keep them from getting out...
...Califano also announced that he had asked the head of the General Services Administration to consider antismoking regulations for all 10,000 buildings the GSA manages and said that, in addition, he had asked the Federal Trade Commission to consider strengthening warnings on cigarette packages and in advertising, setting maximum levels for tar and nicotine, and banning all smoking on commercial airlines...
...First, he builds a constituency among those who see the dangers of smoking but don’t read a program’s fine print...
...No indeed...
...Not bad for one speech...
...Whatever his excuses, and despite his many talents, Califano’s anti-smoking campaign is far from his finest .hour...
...But Califano’s performance isn’t seamless...
...While Califano didn’t mention in his speech the $78.9 million the federal government now spends every year on tobacco subsidies, when questioned later he talked about doing away with the supports...
...The tobacco subsidy made sense back in 1933, when it was enacted as part of the New Deal agricultural legislation...
...Califano also introduced an education program that he called “a counterweight to the blandishments that are influencing thousands of young people to risk their health by smoking...
...Wolfe had great hopes for Califano until the Secretary went the big-pronouncements, minimal-delivery route on everything from the dangers of asbestos to cost containment...
...I might say this has nothing to do at all with ‘the maintenance of the standard of living or income protection of the 600,000 American families who produce tobacco...
...After thespeech, reporters asked Carter how he could praise the state’s congressmen for “taking care of t o b a c c o f a r m e r s ” a n d s u p p o r t Califano’s anti-smoking campaign...
...And yet anti-smoking officials insist that their program is the Secretary’s special favorite, that a day doesn’t pass that he doesn’t send down some note or special instructions...
...As someone who comes from a great tobacco-producing state,” he began, “it’s an honor for me to be here in the capital of the greatest tobacco-producing state in the world...
...was the headline...
...Califano may be in charge of health, said the President, but I’m taking care of tobacco...
...The Califano speech that would follow differed from Bourne’s more in style and presentation than in concrete proposals...
...Bourne questioned the cost-effectiveness of “programs designed to scare young people out of smoking” (youth is the main focus of the Califano educational program) and cautioned against “antagonizing a significant segment of the population” with “government interference in their private lives...
...He knows he’s been running this place and hobnobbing with Ben Bradlee for nearly 20 years and that Ham Jordan’s just a flash in the pan-and the attitude shows...
...Califano is trying to elevate the public role of HEW, but it’s short-sighted,” explains the Health Research Group’s Sidney Wolfe...
...The anti-smoking campaign was, admittedly, developed under difficult circumstances, and Califano no doubt wanted something more than what he got...
...And it means political power...
...He’s a real lawyer in the Washington sense of the word, and Washington lawyers are, as the saying goes, ‘a different breed of white folk.’ We don’t want to become Clarence Darrows...
...Coming in with an aura one aide described as “almost like Edward Kennedy’s,” Califano pulled off his performance and once again drew positive press...
...While some degree of self-promotion is a fact of political life, one wishes Califano had cared less for the a p p e a r a n c e a n d more f o r t h e reality...
...But the Georgians aren’t part of this...
...This seemed only logical-simultaneous federal support and condemnation of the same product is a schizophrenic policy at best...
...Senator Herman Talmadge keeps the tobacco lobby’s interests in mind from the chair of the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee...
...Add a wellfinanced, well-represented lobby, and tobacco would be aforcetoreckon with even if the President weren’t from Georgia...
...Califano has tobacco base burned up...
...The puzzle is not, of course, why the President assured his tobacco-growing constituents that the anti-smoking campaign was going nowhere-it’s why Califano, who certainly must be able to tell an effective program from an ineffective one, chose to present his non-program with such fanfare and moral flourish...
...Obfuscation is not a bad policy,” says an admiring Califano-watcher...
...The section on the anti-smoking campaign was a perfect example of the kind of misleading prose the Secretary inspires...
...With this, as with many other Califano crusades, the Secretary’s approach is like that of a man who attempts to fight a forest fire with a squirt gun...
...Califano didn’t even bother to tell his President that he was riding out against the Southern cash crop...
...And I suppose only true skeptics could doubt that story we hear ad nauseum about how Califano quit to please his son...
...The White House already had its own set of anti-smoking recommendations...
...All this would be added to the $3 to 4 million the government was already spending every year to combat smoking...
...No, said Carter, giving the only reply he could if he wasn’t planning to dismiss Califano that very day...
...His advisors reminded him that a Southern President has a lot to lose from such a campaign...
...Carter himself made this perfectly clear when hespoke at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a few days after Secretary Califano’s announcement...
...He has a good press secretary, though,” says Wolfe...
...But it wasn’t that way at all...
...Califano’s Cigarette Campaign: All Smoke and No Fire by Blythe Babyak The story of Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano’s much touted anti-smoking campaign is full of lessons on how this insider and his city work...
Vol. 10 • July 1978 • No. 5
