ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a national program funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that spent $85 million in tax dollars in 1993 to initiate a program in 32 states and the District of Columbia to train lobbyists and build political coalitions that will advocate banning tobacco products. In Florida and in twenty other states, RWJF is supplementing taxpayer funding by the CDC with its "Smokeless States" grant program. A key player in the politicization of public health is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The CDC and RWJF have adopted the strategy by including programs aimed at children, although most of the policy recommendations they make, such as higher excise taxes, would affect everyone. The CDC requires its thirty-two state grantees to issue "progress reports" annually. It is illegal to spend tax funds on partisan political activity, yet the CDC is doing exactly that by allocating hundreds of millions of tax dollars for political coalition building.
