Senate backs devoting tobacco money to drug war
Reuters Story - June 09, 1998 22:18
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(Updates with passage of Republican drug amendment)
By Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - Breaking a two-week impasse
on tobacco, the Senate on Tuesday struck a tentative deal on
tobacco-financed tax cuts and voted to take billions of dollars
earmarked for public health and devote it to the war on drugs.
Backers of the bill by Arizona Republican John McCain say
the drug and tax plans water down its public health components,
but enhance chances the overall bill will finally pass after
weeks of arguments and delay.
"I can see getting a bill -- there's an outside chance,
this week," said Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and
close ally of McCain. Kerry said the disputes over spending on
drugs, taxes and other programs can be resolved in later
negotiations with the House and the Clinton administration.
The bill, however, has been transformed since the Senate
opened debate on May 18.
In defeats for the tobacco industry, it will have tougher
penalties for cigarette makers who market to the young and will
give companies no legal protections in civil lawsuits.
But in setbacks for anti-tobacco forces, about half of the
$65 billion available in the first five years will either go to
tax cuts or drug programs.
McCain, the lead author of the historic bill that would
raise cigarette prices $1.10 a pack and subject the industry to
new health, marketing and advertising regulations, did not rule
out yet more procedural struggles and emotional battles.
"We have our up days and our down days," McCain said. "I
think we have a long way, a very long way to go."
President Bill Clinton thanked Senate leaders for getting
the tobacco bill moving again, saying: "We have another chance
to save a million lives, reduce youth smoking, and make a
massive contribution to the public health of America."
The Senate voted 52-46 to take nearly $16 billion, or about
80 percent of the money available for public health and
anti-smoking programs, and use it for drug programs. All
Democrats and one Republican voted against it.
On Wednesday, the Senate is likely to take another big
chunk of the tobacco money for tax cuts. Texas Republican Phil
Gramm said the package called for $16 billion in the first five
years and $30 billion in the second five.
Gramm, who had originally sought even bigger tax cuts,
agreed after a week of intense negotiations with McCain to
blend and trim two larger tax cut plans.
As it now stands, the $46 billion would start phasing out
the "marriage penalty," a tax code quirk that raises some
married couples' tax burden, and also let people who buy their
own health insurance deduct the full cost from their taxes.
Democrats will offer their own, narrower tax cut plan. But
one Democratic source said the scaled-back Republican version
was "not a poison pill" that would kill the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had insisted that the
McCain bill include a tax cut, and he had even threatened to
abandon the tobacco bill if one was not included.
The Senate had been stuck for days, unable to stop fighting
about tobacco, and unable to move on to other legislation. Even
though the overall bill has bipartisan support, the debate
bogged down in angry, partisan battles.
Republicans earlier on Tuesday easily rebuffed a Democratic
attempt to wind up the debate and force a swift vote on the
overall bill. The Democrats immediately set the stage for the
Senate to vote again and again on cutting off debate, and
predicted that eventually they would get Republican backing.
The drug package sponsored by Sen. Paul Coverdell of
Georgia and Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, both Republicans, would
double the drug interdiction budgets of the U.S. Customs, the
Coast Guard and the Defense Departments.
It increases the overall Drug Enforcement Agency budget by
25 percent, and boosts the FBI drug budget by 25 percent.
It includes some controversial provisions, including a ban
on needle exchanges for drug addicts to combat AIDS and a
school voucher provision that enables students who are victims
of crimes or drug-related violence to go to private or
parochial schools.
Democrats tried and failed to offer a similar proposal to
spend more on drugs without taking the money from tobacco. They
also omitted the school voucher provision, which they strongly
oppose, and scaled back the needle exchange ban.
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