William P. Orzechowski

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Dr. William Orzechowski was Chief Economist for the Tobacco Institute and worked in conjunction with the Institute's Public Affairs, State
Activities and Federal Relations Divisions. His title changed over the years but he is generally listed as Director of Economic Issues.

1984-88 He was the Director of Federal Budget Policy, US Chamber of Commerce, Washington, DC. His primary responsibility was to maintain the Chamber's leadership role on federal budget issues for the business community. His CV says:

Performed and managed economic research on federal budget issues.

Prepared and presented testimony on such issues before congressional committees.

Served as an expert on federal budget issues on the Chamber's television network Biz-Net (affiliated with ESPN).

Helped raise funds and manage research contracts for the National Chamber Foundation (a Chamber subsidiary that supports academic and educational programs on economic issues). [4]

The views expressed are those of the authors alone and may not represent those of the U.S. Department of Treasury or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the May 1987 meeting of the Henry Simons Society in Washington, D.C. The comments of the participants of the Henry Simons Society meeting and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged. [6]

1988 Feb The Tobacco Institute's new economic executive comes from US Chamber of Commerce, where he served as Director of Federal Budget Policy (Note Tom Donohue was also from National Chamber Foundation) [7]

1988 Aug A bibliography of Orzechowski sent to the Tobacco Institute. His main co-writers were:

1985 SepAtlantic Economic Journal "Taxes and Incentives: Horatio Alger vs. The Tax Man" by Philip RP Coelho and William P Orzechowski. He is credited in this study as being from Ball State University and the US Tobacco Institute. Coelho appears not to be credited.

Another article in the same journal is "Inferring Collusion from Pricing Behavior: The American Tobacco Case Reexamined"[9]

Purpose: To develop and train a corps of economists for testifying at federal and state hearings, and for meetings with legislators. Participants: We expect approximately 25 individuals in the program (list attached) Instructors/Moderators:

1994 Oct 14:David Theroux at the Independent Institute sends a copy of their proposal for a book to be called "Sin Taxes" to William Orzechowski at the Tobacco Institute. It implies that excise taxes are imposed on cigarettes simply because the tobacco industry is unpopular and an easy target.

It doesn't single out cigarettes (that would be too obvious) but raises the threat of Alcohol, Prohibition: The Ultimate "Sin", Gun Control, the War on Drugs, and the evils of 'Earmarking' such excises to prop up the health care system. Constitutional Liberties are also dealt up in the penultimate chapters.

The Institute is prepared to print and promote 810,000 books (cheap enough to be used as text-books) and there will be other benefits, such as "reprints in journals and magazines, syndication of Op-Eds and wire stories to major newspapers, media intereviews and government testimony by authors. Also lecture tours, etc. etc.

It will be edited by William Shughart under the direction of the Independent Institute's Research Director, Dr Robert Higgs, and have chapters written by the old Cash for Comment crowd.

Hence, when David Theroux of the Independent Institute contacted me to ask whether I might be interested in putting together a volume that would explore the purposes and effects of tax policy in regulating consumption choices, I eagerly accepted . Let me here acknowledge the Independent Institute's financial sponsorship and David Theroux's encouragement along the way.

This draft was in Philip Morris files, and it has additions and corrections in handwritten form. For instance "politically incorrect" has been inserted before"products" and "excise" inserted before taxes. "Sin" taxes have been quoted. New chapter titles have been added.
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