AdTI (Doc Index)
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This stub is a work-in-progress by the ScienceCorruption.com journalists's group. We are indexing the millions of documents stored at the San Francisco Uni's Legacy Tobacco Archive [1] With some entries you'll need to go to this site and type into the Search panel a (multi-digit) Bates number. You can search on names for other documents also. Send any corrections or additions to editor@sciencecorruption.com |
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The Alexis de Tocqueville is a mercenary libertarian free-market operation which takes money from any corporation or industry willing to pay.
Documents & Timeline
1994 Sep This is an activities report from an unknown Washington DC lobbyist for the Tobacco Institute. His/Her report (see end of large bundle) [2] has a couple of references to the mercenary nature of their arrangement with the AdTI.
- De Tocqueville-Canadian Project
Worked with Mark Smith of RJ Reynolds and Cesar Conda, executive director of the De Tocqueville Institute to set up a public affairs program on the Canadian cigarette market. The purpose was to alert US legislators and the public to the cross border dangers of a high US cigarette tax.
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The project led to an in-depth study of the hi-tax Canadian cigarette market and its implications for possible cross border sales along our Mexican border should the US install large cigarettte tax hikes.
The De Tocqueville study was released in March by the National Association of Convenience Stores, it was the subject of a number of op-ed articles in newpapers. And, the study itself was published in Tax Notes, a nationally well regarded tax journal.
The Tobacco Institute (TI) wrote two Canadian op-ed articles. One op-ed on the lessons from Canada's recent decision to reduce cigarette taxes and the other op-ed on the effect of Canada's lower cigarette tax on the Consumer's Price Index.
Both of these op-eds were released to the press by the De Tocqueville Institute and showed up in a variety of newspapers.
De Tocqueville ETS Project
Worked with the De Tocqueville Institute to set up public affairs initiative on the ETS issue. Four part De Tocqueville study will outline the poor science and analysis used by EPA in its risk assessments and cost-benefit analysis. One part of the study is dedicated to ETS.Study will be released on Capitol Hill on August 11 by House members Pete Geren and John Mica.
TI also worked to set-up Scientific Advisory Board and craft media strategy for this program. [3]
- The study was released on Aug 11 according to the report of Shook Hardy & Bacon, the tobacco scam lawyers.
The de Tocqueville Institution unveiled a report on environmental issues during a briefing on August 11, 1994. The report, entitled Science, Economics and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination, focuses on ETS, radon, pesticides and the Superfund cleanup.[4]
- The Activities Report for AdTI in September has more information about this project. [5] [6]
Also in the same report is a proposal for further work with the AdTI.
De Tocqueville Cross Border Tax Project
The De Tocqueville Institute has demonstrated its ability to develop studies and get media exposure for them in a quick time frame. We would like to take advantage of their resources in 1995 by developing a cross border tax project. The focus would be both at the state and federal level. At the federal level we would continue to develop the idea that high national cigarettes could cause significant border problems with Mexico. At the state level we would develop a Border Experts Advisory Board. This would be composed of economists with a regional flavor.It would enable us to develop quick media response in states with tax problems. Most of the board would be composed of economists we already know. But, the accent would focus on getting a fast response in a particular state. Utilizing TI data and industry sponsored studies, De Tocqueville could team up with a local economist to generate op-eds on fast notice.
De Tocqueville would also be well suited to making regressivity type arguments from a freedoms perspective. They could focus on how the average American is being pounded with excise taxes. How average Americans are being segregated into politically useful minority classifications in order to exploit such groups with taxes and restrictions.
For example, almost every month we hear of the social costs of some new minority group such as obese people, beef eaters, Mexican food buffs, popcorn consumers, fisherman that use lead sinkers. It seems everyday there is an attempt to classify some group of normal people into a villainous category and then to suggest "remedies."
It would seem as this goes on and on that we will soon be on the verge of a major backlash, De Tocqueville is the kind of group to tap into this backlash with our issues. We would like to contribute about $20,000 to DeTocqueville on these projects beginning in the fall of 1994. [7]
These exchanges leave little doubt that the AdTI just operated like a commercial lobby-shop, willing to take on any project for any corporation or industry that would pay it to produce some predetermined results. It's social concerns were a fiction.
The "economists the Tobacco Institute already knows" are the core members of the Cash for Comments Economists Network..
