[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5564-H5565]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE TOBACCO LOBBY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Washington, Mrs. Linda Smith, is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. LINDA SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I feel like I am running 
a rerun. Three years in a row, this is my third year in Congress, I 
have come to the floor and discussed what seems to be a subsidy that 
makes no sense.
  At first, when I saw that we were subsidizing insurance for tobacco, 
I thought it was a mistake, because I had arrived with a group of 
people saying they were going to balance the budget and get rid of 
things that were not important, not only were not important but 
unnecessary, and that we were going to clean house.
  So I was assured that when we brought that amendment to the floor, a 
bipartisan group from the oldest Members to the newest Members, that 
surely it would be gone by the end of the day. The bill was stalled, 
took a while, seemed to take a few days. I thought it would be one day 
and it moved to the next. Lost by 13 votes. It seemed a little 
intriguing until the next year we found the tobacco lobby had cut 165 
checks within 48 hours of that vote. Unfortunately, some of them had 
been passed out here, very close to the vote, very close to where we 
were voting.
  The next year, I thought, well, surely people with the disgust at 
what the tobacco industry is doing, marketing to our children, we will 
win this vote on a crop subsidy, targeted to children, intended to 
harm. But no, lost by two votes, just two votes, as even people did not 
vote, walking from the floor.
  Why is that happening? I could not quite understand it. And I still 
do not understand it. But today, actually now later in the day, or I 
guess tomorrow now, we will have the vote again and some will say, as 
we are voting, well, the small tobacco companies need it, or the 
farmers. The reality is they are not the ones passing out checks here 
to keep that. It is the large tobacco companies wanting to keep a hold 
on what they believe is their position here in Congress, making sure 
that they still have their insurance subsidized.
  I heard the argument that, well, it is only right, they are a crop. 
Then I realized that we have thousands of crops. Only a few dozen have 
subsidies, and only a few are insured by the Federal Government. Now, I 
can understand sugar, although I do not understand why we are 
subsidizing that. I could maybe understand peanuts, because like sugar, 
at least it feeds children. But tobacco? Subsidizing the insurance? 
Charging it to those same children that it is aimed to harm?
  No, tomorrow I think this Congress is going to have a chance to show 
whether we believe in balancing the budget and whether we believe in 
going to those things that are unnecessary first, and also it will show 
a little bit about what happens here when money flows from large 
corporations to campaigns and to parties.
  Earlier today it was disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars 
in the last few days had been given to both parties from the tobacco 
industry in what is called soft money, the soft money being given to 
the party because, see, if that was given to a candidate or used 
against a candidate in a TV ad, how would taxpayers feel about seeing 
that R.J. Reynolds paid for this ad at the bottom of the ad, which is 
the law. They have to show who pays for the ad, so, instead, they give 
it to the parties. They launder it through and it

[[Page H5565]]

comes out as paid for by the Republican or Democratic Party. Soft 
money.
  See, the tobacco companies are smart. They know they are not popular, 
but they still want to control. So they give their money, as one of the 
most lucrative groups in the Nation, to keep their control, to keep 
their hands around our political system by giving it to the two major 
parties. The same soft money system that funneled the money that went 
through the White House to the Democrat Party from mainland China.
  Tonight we can surmise, or I will surmise two things: Tomorrow we 
will see just how much power money has over American politics. Even 
that power that has to be hidden. And tomorrow we will see whether or 
not we can say no to those that give the hundreds of thousands, no, 
actually the millions of dollars to this political system, for 
something that costs billions. The American people only get 30 minutes 
because we do not want them to watch law, but they can see tomorrow.

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