Tobacco payback

The US government will sue tobacco companies to recover billions of dollars
in healthcare costs, President Bill Clinton said in his State of the Union
address last week. “Taxpayers shouldn’t pay for the cost of lung cancer,
emphysema and other smoking-related illnesses. The tobacco companies should,” he
said. Tobacco companies have already agreed to pay 46 states $206 billion
in an out-of-court settlement. The federal suit will seek billions more to
reimburse federal health programs.