Durbin said tobacco is different from the 66 other crops that receive insurance subsidies because of the multiple health problems it causes - problems that cost the government billions of dollars. Tobacco is perfectly legal. You have to eat a lot of corn and soybeans to die. Tobacco-state senators argued that abolishing insurance for growers would force many to stop cultivating the crop and damage the economies of rural areas. And the cigarette companies, they said, would simply get their tobacco from overseas or from large operations that can afford private policies.
American farmers go out of business and whole communities in the South die.
Durbin, who sponsored the 1987 law that ended smoking on domestic airlines, said growers should be on notice that efforts to abolish the subsidy will continue. We're going to win this battle. Copyright 1997 Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.