Interesting Speculation, Fred, but I don't see it happening. MO is going to go through the whole legal gambit and fiasco here. The tobacco industry is by no means at the desperate stage yet, in contrast to all appearances. Read on:
" Lott Says Tobacco Bill Can't Pass " June 14, 1998;2:26 p.m. EDT
Washington ( AP )-- The giant anti-tobacco bill in the Senate is about to collapse under its own weight and cannot pass as it is currently written, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said on Sunday.
" This bill is so bad right now, I just don't think it should be passed in this form, " Lott, a leading critic of the legislation, said on ABC's " This week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts."
Last week, Lott said in a Sunday TV interview the legislation aimed at reducing teen smoking and increasing federal controls over cigarette content was " dead in the water."
There has been some movement since then, particularly approval of Republican-backed amendments to end the tax penalty some couples face when they marry and to channel some money in the bill to fighting drugs. Lott said Sunday that's not enough.
" Everybody that has touched it has made it worse," he said. "It's become such a massive tax bill now, such a massive government program with incredible spending, and we still haven't resolved some of the stickiest problems of all, and that is what do you do about these massive attorneys' fees and what do you do about how the farmers are compensated.
Lott said he was willing to give another week to the bill, which already has been on the Senate floor three weeks. " If somewhere this week we can't get it to a conclusion, we've got to move on," Lott said.
President Clinton, at a fund raising dinner Saturday night in Beverly Hills, Calif., said critics and advertisements opposing the bill claim there is "this dark scheme in Washington to build some new federal bureaucracy, and it's the biggest load of huey I ever heard in my life". ( Your the huey, Mr. President.)
Clinton adviser Rahm Emanuel, on NBC's " Meet the Press," said the White House still has confidence a bill can be passed. " We are pushing very hard, and we believe members of Congress, as they vote, will vote like parents and not politicians," Emanuel said.
But by the end of last week the consensus in the Senate was that the bill had become too big and in the end would have to be negotiated into very different compromise legislation in closed-door talks with the House.
House Republicans leaders say they will accept only a far smaller bill that targets both teen-age smoking and drug abuse. They object to the Senate's plan to charge the tobacco industry $516 billion over 25 years to change smoking habits.
" We've got to go to conference" with the House, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said Friday. "I believe we can make a lot of good changes in conference to bring this bill back to reality". |
