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Non-Tech : Philip Morris - A Stock For Wealth Or Poverty (MO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Xpiderman who wrote (1735)	6/7/1998 12:41:00 PM
From: Xpiderman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6439

They don't have to vote to kill the tobacco bill. They can talk it to death. Squabbles Go On Over Tobacco Bill Changes By Saundra Torry Saturday, June 6, 1998 washingtonpost.com phm,,Ray Lustig for twp-As the Senate this week debated the national tobacco bill, conservative Republicans tried to add to the measure such GOP favorites as tax cuts, anti-drug programs and even a controversial school voucher plan. Much of the week was spent in partisan maneuvering. GOP conservatives moved to use the bill -- with its promise of $65 billion in new revenue over the next five years -- to finance pet causes. Democrats, in turn, pressed to cut off those efforts by trying to force a quick vote on the measure when the Senate returns Tuesday. As the debate moved into far-flung issues, each side blamed the other for the bill's possible demise. Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday that Democratic "games" would push the bill over the edge. "It could take forever, or, in fact, never, for this bill to be completed unless we have a modicum of cooperation on both sides," Lott said. Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said Republicans were continuing "to block and obfuscate" during nearly 50 hours of debate. "They don't have to vote to kill [the tobacco measure]. They can talk it to death." As of yesterday, Republicans were pressing to add amendments that would: Reduce the so-called marriage penalty, the increased taxes some couples pay after they marry. Beef up drug interdiction programs. Stem drug-related violence in schools, in part with a proposal that would pay for private education for students who are victims of school violence. While Democrats agreed that a modified tax cut and an anti-drug effort should be part of the bill, they charged that GOP conservatives were loading amendments with "poison pills." For instance, school vouchers, which are strongly opposed by liberal Democrats, were part of an amendment, introduced by Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), to use about $16 billion in tobacco revenue over five years for anti-drug programs. A spokesman for Coverdell said "the school choice provision" is an important element in encouraging safe and drug-free schools. A senior Democratic Senate aide countered that it was designed to turn the anti-drug proposal into a "killer amendment." "It would have been easy to craft something on drugs that 95 of 100 senators will vote for," he said. "They tried to do the opposite and create something that a great many can't vote for." Similarly, Democrats said that as years go by the marriage penalty reduction, proposed by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), would absorb ever-increasing portions of the tobacco revenue destined for the states, anti-smoking efforts, medical research and tobacco farmers. Democrats have proposed what they say is a less costly alternative and are drafting their own anti-drug proposal. Republicans contend that tax cuts and drug prevention are fair uses for part of the more than $500 billion in tobacco revenue expected over 25 years -- far more, they say, than is needed for programs preferred by Democrats. Still, White House officials said they remained "optimistic" the Senate will pass the measure. "Some complicated things have to be resolved," one official said, including the tax cut, the drug proposal and how to compensate tobacco farmers. "But I do think people have spent this week thinking some about those issues, and next week, the Senate will start marching through them." When the Senate returns Tuesday, it is to vote on Daschle's move to cut off debate and force action. That would require 60 votes, and both Democrats and Republicans agreed yesterday that Daschle will not prevail the first time around. But those votes will refocus the debate on "who wants to pass" the bill, and "who wants to talk it to death," said a senior Democratic Senate aide. "Lott knows it would be political suicide for Republicans to kill the bill in a visible way." Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David A. Kessler, a major supporter of the bill, called the Senate back-and-forth "the process you go through any time you pass large and complicated legislation. . . . At the end of the day the votes are there [to pass the bill] in the Senate."