[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 18, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2235-S2236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TOBACCO LEGISLATION

  Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Chair. Madam President, I especially thank 
her for locating me properly in North Dakota. We are very sensitive 
about that up our way, as you can imagine. I also thank the leader for 
accommodating me in this way.
  Moments ago, we heard the Senator from Iowa speak on the budget and 
the fact that we are considering the budget in the Budget Committee. I 
wanted to make just a few observations on what is occurring there and 
what has led us to this point.
  In 1993, the Democrats passed an economic plan that was a 5-year 
plan. That plan cut spending and it also raised income taxes on the 
wealthiest 1.5 percent of the people in this country. Many criticized 
us for that plan at the time, doubting that it would reduce the deficit 
as we believed, doubting that it would strengthen the economy as we 
believed, and doubting that it would reduce unemployment and inflation 
as we believed. But now we are able to look back and see the record and 
the record is clear. The 1993 economic plan has worked and worked 
remarkably well. It worked so well that this year we are actually 
contemplating a balanced budget on a unified basis. That will be the 
first time in 30 years that the United States has had a balanced budget 
on a unified basis. When I use those words ``on a unified basis,'' that 
simply means that we are looking at all of the spending and all of the 
revenue of the Federal Government. All of them are put together. They 
are accumulated in order to determine balance.
  As a result of that economic policy and economic plan that was put in 
place, we have enjoyed a remarkable economic resurgence in this 
country. We have very strong economic growth, the lowest unemployment 
in 24 years, the lowest inflation in 30 years. The size of the 
Government in relationship to the size of our entire economy has been 
coming down steadily. We have the smallest size of Government in this 
country in 30 years. But the job is not yet done, because it is also 
true that we continue to use Social Security trust fund surpluses in 
order to achieve balance. So the next great challenge is to stop using 
the Social Security trust fund surpluses. That is why the President has 
called on us to save Social Security first, before we use any of those 
surpluses for any other purpose.
  The Democrats subscribe to that position. I am pleased to report in 
the budget that has been put before us by the chairman of the Budget 
Committee, he, too, has subscribed to the notion of saving Social 
Security first and not using the surpluses for any other purpose until 
we resolve the long-term solvency of the Social Security system. But we 
do have a problem with the budget resolution laid down by the chairman 
today. The problem that we have is that many of us believe that it 
endangers comprehensive tobacco legislation, comprehensive national 
tobacco policy. The reason for that is in the chairman's mark he has 
provided that if we do get revenues from tobacco, that they can only be 
used for the Medicare system.
  Madam President, I would be the first to acknowledge the great 
importance of the Medicare system. But I do not believe that the 
chairman's mark solves the Medicare problem. I do not think he makes 
any representation that it does.
  What is required to save Medicare for the long term is Medicare 
reform. That is why we have a bipartisan commission that worked this 
year to prepare us an outline as to how we strengthen Medicare for the 
long term.
  But I think it is also fair to say that Medicare is not a national 
tobacco policy, and we need a national tobacco policy. If we are going 
to have comprehensive legislation, if we are going to have a resolution 
of the tobacco controversy, the experts have told us we need a 
comprehensive plan, one that has as its highest priority protecting the 
public health, one that has as its highest priority the reduction of 
teen smoking, because we all know that 90 percent of smokers start 
before they are 19, fully half start before age 14.
  So if we are really going to do something to protect the public 
health, we need to act to prevent people from taking up the habit. That 
means if we get tobacco revenues, we should use part of that money for 
smoking cessation programs, smoking prevention programs, countertobacco 
advertising programs, health research, and, yes, Medicare, and we 
Democrats also believe, yes, Social Security.
  We believe some of the money should be saved for strengthening both 
Medicare and Social Security, but we don't

[[Page S2236]]

believe that it is appropriate to limit the use of the funds for only 
one purpose--strengthening Medicare. We don't believe that is 
appropriate. We believe if we are going to have a national tobacco 
policy, that some of the funds, a relatively modest amount of the 
total, be reserved for smoking cessation, smoking prevention, 
countertobacco advertising, health research, and other programs that 
have been advocated by the experts that have come before us.
  The irony is, every comprehensive bill that is before this body uses 
the funds not just for Medicare but for these other purposes as well. 
The bill presented by Senator McCain, the chairman of the Commerce 
Committee, the bill presented by Senator Lugar, the chairman of the 
Agriculture Committee, the bill put before us by Senator Hatch, the 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee--all Republicans, all committee 
chairmen--they have not said in their comprehensive bills we just use 
the money for Medicare. No; they have said, to have a comprehensive 
national tobacco policy, we have to do more than that; we have to have 
a tobacco control program that really helps us stop the 400,000 deaths 
that occur every year in this country because of the use of tobacco 
products.
  Madam President, we urge our colleagues to listen to Dr. Koop, who 
wrote to us today that the approach of the chairman of the Senate 
Budget Committee is inadequate--in fact, he used the words ``woefully 
inadequate''--to counter the scourge of tobacco. We should listen to 
the American Cancer Society that wrote to the committee today and said 
just using the money for Medicare is not adequate. We should listen to 
the American Lung Association that said in a letter to the committee 
today, just using the money for Medicare is not going to help us solve 
the challenge of addiction, disease, and death brought to this country 
by the use of tobacco products.
  Madam President, hopefully, before this matter is resolved out here 
on the Senate floor, we will be able to get together on a comprehensive 
plan. I hope we are able to do that. I dedicate myself to that purpose, 
and I hope other Senators will as well.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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