It's only $120 Billion Less

Amidst all the noise of the "war on terror" and the brew-haha about Karl Rove, no one is paying any attention to the little
$120 billion reduction in penalties sought against the tobacco companies. In the multi-year litigation still going on between the Feds and the tobacco industry, at the last minute the Justice Department, aka the Bush Administration, decided to ask the courts for a penalty of $10 billion, not $130 billion as generally advised.

According to a CBS news story:
The government asked Kessler [the judge] to require the companies to fund a five-year, $10 billion program, a fraction of the 25-year, $130 billion program suggested by government witness Michael C. Fiore, a University of Wisconsin medical professor.

Democrats and other administration critics claimed that top Justice Department officials pressured the lawyers handling the case to back off the more expensive anti-smoking campaign.