Big tobacco a test for McCain

WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain previously backed a huge tax on cigarettes but he's balked at a bill regulating the industry, an adviser says.

The Arizona senator supported a $1.10-per-pack cigarette tax as a measure to fund a campaign to curb underage smoking but his policy adviser told The Boston Globe McCain can't back legislation that will allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco -- a measure he agreed to cosponsor -- until he sees the final version.

In 2007, the Globe reported, McCain backed from a program that would have added another 61-cent tax on cigarettes to support a children's health program.

"Now help me out here: We are trying to get people not to smoke, and yet we are depending on tobacco to fund a program that's designed for children's health?" McCain said. "I can't buy that."

McCain's senior campaign adviser, Charlie Black -- who also served as a lobbyist for the Phillip Morris tobacco company -- said McCain wanted to make a deal that would satisfy the tobacco industry and health advocates on the bill.