CARLSON:   It's CROSSFIRE "Round 6!" Carlson versus Begala. No guests, no holds barred. Topic number one, smoke and mirrors. A study just released by the Centers for Disease Control says smoking costs the U.S. $150 billion each year in heath costs and lost productivity, a total they say comes out to $7.18 a pack. So there you have it, Paul Begala. The geniuses at the CDC has discovered smoking is bad for you. Why don't they spend their time working on a cure for cancer instead of coming up with these phony, meaningless statistics that add nothing to the national dialogue or -- we're happy we have it for our segment, but other than that it's pointless. 
BEGALA:   Actually, I'll give you a few more: 440,000 Americans every year die from cigarette smoking. 
CARLSON:   I knew that. I knew that. 
BEGALA:   Average woman who smokes loses 13 years of her life. 
CARLSON:   I knew that. 
BEGALA:   The average man 14.5. 
CARLSON:   Yes, I knew that too. But I guess...    We're coming back to the baseline. Smoking is bad for you, and you should know it, buddy! 
BEGALA:   Smoking is not just bad for the smokers; it's bad for the taxpayers. My view, smoke if you want, kill yourself if you want, but don't ask me to pay for your funeral. 
CARLSON:   There's the big lie. Do you drink beer, Paul? I know you do. I wonder what the cost per beer is if you were to measure it in accidents, drunk driving, wife beating. 
BEGALA:   ... tobacco is the only product when use as directed kills you. It kills you. 
CARLSON:   That's a nice talking point. If you were to average out the cost to society per beer, absolutely, it would be more than cigarettes. It absolutely would. And how about Snickers bars? Diabetes, obesity. I think we ought to tax them. 
BEGALA:   What you're talking about are other legal products that are sometimes abused. Tobacco when used as directed kills your body. 
CARLSON:   That, as you're fully aware, is a phony statistic. Most people pay their own health insurance. 
BEGALA:   ... $7.18 a pack, take the money, put it into health care. By the way... 
CARLSON:   But the states are already doing that! And you know what they do? 
BEGALA:   It will stop kids from smoking. 
CARLSON:   No, it doesn't stop kids from smoking. 
BEGALA:   If you raise it to $7 a pack, it will price them out of the market.    All it does is keep poor people from smoking decent cigarettes; they have to smoke generics. It doesn't cause people to quit smoking. It's ridiculous. But there is a principle here... 
CARLSON:   If the cigarette companies are so effective, then why do cigarettes cost $7 a pack?  
BEGALA:   They don't. They ought to, but they don't. 
CARLSON:   They don't. 
BEGALA:   And I'll tell you what, they ought to. 
CARLSON:   There's a principle that you as a budding civil libertarian, I want to help you on this show. It's part of the progress you and I are working toward here. I want to recognize the principle here, though, that is first they came for my Camels. What next? It will be your beer. 
BEGALA:   No, it will be your casket, and don't ask me to pay for the funeral. 
CARLSON:   I won't. 
BEGALA:   Ready, aim and "fireback." CROSSFIRE viewers are going to take their best shots at Tucker and me when we come back.
