Posted on 07/15/2004 5:43:39 PM PDT by knak
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate overwhelmingly approved a landmark tobacco deal on Thursday to give the Food and Drug Administration long-sought power to regulate cigarettes and give $12 billion in aid to tobacco farmers.
Though hailed as a breakthrough by public health groups, the measure faces an uncertain future because it was approved as part of a massive corporate tax bill that must still be reconciled with the House of Representatives's version. Those talks are expected to be long and complex.
The lopsided 78-15 vote will strengthen the Senate position in those negotiations, and many lawmakers who want greater public health jurisdiction over tobacco were more optimistic than they had been since 1998, when a tobacco bill linked to multibillion-dollar state lawsuits against tobacco companies collapsed.
"This represents a fundamental change and a fundamental step forward," said Matt Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
While the House and Senate have had extensive hearings and probes of Big Tobacco, Myers noted this would be the first time either chamber had passed meaningful regulation of the companies' advertising, marketing, ingredients and safety claims.
The FDA itself tried to assert its authority over tobacco in the 1990s, but the battle went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2000 that the FDA did not have jurisdiction under existing law. This legislation would change the law and grant the agency that explicit power.
Under the proposal, the tobacco industry would finance a $12-billion buyout of Depression-era crop quotas, an arcane price support system that no longer serves farmers' economic interests in an increasingly global market.
Mitch McConnell, who represents the tobacco-growing state of Kentucky and is the number two Republican leader in the Senate, agreed the components of the bill had to be linked if either was to pass.
MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
"It's not a shotgun wedding, it's a marriage of convenience," said McConnell, lead author of the buyout legislation.
"Yes it's a marriage of convenience, but I believe it's a good marriage," agreed Ohio Republican Mike DeWine, a co-author with Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy of the FDA bill.
"This is the most important step we can take for public health short of curing cancer itself," Kennedy said.
The proposal would give the FDA expanded powers to require more forceful health warnings on cigarette packs, regulate advertising, more aggressively combat underage sales and regulate ingredients to make cigarettes less harmful. It could not ban cigarettes or completely eliminate nicotine.
The major cigarette companies are divided over the measure. The Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris, has endorsed it, but R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co on Thursday repeated its "vigorous opposition."
A rival House version of the tobacco measure attached to the corporate tax bill would cost taxpayers -- not the industry -- $9.6 billion, and is not linked to FDA regulation.
Smoking is the top preventable cause of death in the United States, leading to 400,000 deaths a year. Ninety percent of smokers get hooked as children or teen-agers, according to public health groups.
My family raised tobacco in Maryland fron the 1600's to the 1970s. Maryland has gone so far over to the socialists that I would have great difficulty living there.
Ironically, now I live in a state more free, but one which considered socialism in the early 1900s.
Somewhere along the line things got hijacked.
The family was under serious attack by the 1960s, mainly in the schools, but the denigration of McCarthy's Committee on unAmerican Activities (since proven right by soviet documents) may have been the real break point.
True, patriotic, Constitutionally thinking Americans have been browbeat into some modicum of shame for doing almost any virtuous activity ever since.
With this idealogical retreat has come a wholehearted, continuing, assault by the enemies of the Judeo-Christian ethic, and the primary battleground has been America's youth.
This was enabled by the economic upheavals of the late 70's which virtually required a two wage-earner family, and left the kids at the mercy of liberal 'educators' who have been steadily indoctrinating our youth ever since.
The 'reserves' in this battle, our children, are being daily compromised.
I'm raising grandchildren, now. They are the hope for the future.
Tell them the truth, teach them to think, explain the lies. Give them a picture of how it should be and pray, dear God, that it takes hold.
No peaceful swing of the pendulum will happen quickly.
What smokers have never had (unlike the NRA) is an understanding of the incremental nature of the combined assault of media denigration and legislative whittling away, aimed in coordination at banning something. These people didn't want "fair" they wanted it their way and no other. They can't think far enough ahead to see that someday, something they like may be next on the hit list. By then it will be too late.
The 78-15 roll call Thursday by which the Senate voted to give the FDA the power to regulate cigarettes and approved a $12 billion buyout for tobacco farmers.< snip >
Texas
Cornyn (R) Yes; Hutchison (R) Yes.Wow ! What an overwhelming vote. What is driving all the GOP to this ? Even my two voted for it.
The proposal would give the FDA expanded powers to require more forceful health warnings on cigarette packs, regulate advertising, more aggressively combat underage sales and regulate ingredients to make cigarettes less harmful. It could not ban cigarettes or completely eliminate nicotine.
Well, it looks like the bill would prevent the FDA from making good on its' threat to ban cigs, eh ?
Well said.
I was brought up "Live and Let Live." Then, along came groups that didn't like something or it didn't fit THEIR lifestyle, so they decided that THEY didn't want it on the face of the earth. To 'ell with the rest of us.
When other anti's saw that the one group was getting it's way, then another anti group sprung up.
If they didn't like it for themselves, then they wanted to deprive everyone else as well.
Wicked world we live in.
Am I living in a bubble or what? I thought all of the above WAS being done under the stipulations between Big Tobacco and the Attorney Generals. Called The Tobacco Settlement.
Phillip Morris touted for this bill to give tobacco to the FDA, now they are worried that the FDA will ban it. It has been in print time and time again that if the FDA governed tobacco, then they would have to BAN it , because they could never deem it safe. I'm afraid that Phillip Morris just shot themselves in the foot. I never could stand PM. I could see where they were headed with this long ago. Apparently, THEY did not.
Oh yes! The two RINO Senators from Maine voted YES as well. They have been RINO's through and through from the time they took office. And that is another reason I am for term limits. We need to replace these two and find someone with a fresher approach to the world we are living in.
Maine
Collins (R) Yes; Snowe (R) Yes.
Thanks for the roll call, She Lion..not that much of it surprises me......especially the votes from the tobacco states.
No my dear, they have not...they have just tightened their hold on their market share with the blessing of the US Senate. This legislation specifically states the FDA can not ban cigarettes or eliminate nicotine. The last part which of course is a laugh, as nicotine is a naturally occurring chemical in many things, including fruits and vegetables of the nightshade family.
I never could stand PM.
And with good reason....PM has long been seeking a monopoly on the US tobacco industry, and this is just another government sanctioned step in that direction. The MSA was the first step.
Many of the disinformation programs started with KGB seed money, or helped significantly, are still going strong, right here at home.
The really sad part, is that during the Clinton administration, partly due to the poor analysis of the Oklahoma City bombing (ignoring islamic connections), anyone who was right wing, Christian, and advocated traditional American core beliefs (including understanding the Constitution) was branded as a potential terrorist. Groups of farmers, self-proclaimed 'militia' groups, (scared sh!tless after Ruby Ridge, WACO, and the Gordon Kahl incident, among others) were branded as 'terrorist militias' by the Clinton cronies. The onus, unfortunately, has stuck, whether or not it is deserved.
If a Democrat is elected President, I expect at least one 'terror incident' to be blamed on the political right, with sweeping emergency legislation banning firearms worked in there somewhere.
Every time I hear the PM ads on the dangers of smoking on TV at night I have to hit the mute button.
They say "There is no safe cigarette" and I go nuts yelling back at the TV,"Then stop manufacturing them".
I hate hypocrisy and PM is one of the most hypocritical companies I have ever had the misfortune to run across.
Maybe I should move to New Hampshire where there is a "Live Free or Die" attitude.2 "no" votes from NH.
After 2 weeks of no smoking in Massachusetts I haven't gone out to breakfast,something I have been doing since I retired 9 years ago.
At least I'm saving some money.
What a pit Massachusetts has become.
This is rediculous, Gabz. PM has been wanting this, now that it seems they are getting what they ask for, they are back tracking.
Remember that guy last year that got mad at me because I said I hated Phillip Morris? And he said he loved them and had stock in them?
Well, he better sell out fast, I'm telling you.
If this all goes through, his stock in PM won't be worth much.
Well, I have been discussing this in email with a lot of people. Most agree that it will go through, but with all the "little bills" attached to this BIG bill, it's going to take quite awhile to get it all pushed through.
And like I said, it's been in print time and time again that if the FDA regulated cigarettes and tobacco, they would have to ban it, since they could not deem it safe. It will be interesting.
I keep my mind in a lockbox where it is safe. Problem is
I have misplaced the lockbox. Dang
Yea Alabama.
Believe me, you know I've read it as many times as you have.....however, the language of this legislation specifically prohibits that from occurring.
If this legislation would permit FDA to ban cigarettes....it would not go anywhere. Government is far more addicted to tobacco tax revenue than they claim smokers are to nicotine.
Maine as well. They stink to high heaven!
I love this state, but the state government for the most part, stink to high heaven.
You sound just like me. If PM is putting those ads on TV about how bad smoking is, then why don't they get the hell out of the cigarette business. Really burns me up!
Can you imagine if a Ford said "There is no safe automobile" or Boeing said "There is no safe airplane" or Kelloggs said "There is no safe breakfast cereal"
Pretty funny!
My dream is Hitlery saying "There is no safe socialism."
Now "ain't" that special!
Getting to the heart of the issue SheLion, it is not a factor as to if it's safe or not as much as it is a factor in political expediency.
After all, what is more important in present day America, personal rights or the poll concerns of a politician?
I'm going to cut this short to take a smoke break. : )
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