Date: 1997-07-22
Speaker: LINDA SMITH (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Washington

Mr. Speaker. I feel like I am running a rerun. Three years in a row. this is my third year in Congress. I have come to the floor and discussed what seems to be a subsidy that makes no sense. At first. when I saw that we were subsidizing insurance for tobacco. I thought it was a mistake. because I had arrived with a group of people saying they were going to balance the budget and get rid of things that were not important. not only were not important but unnecessary. and that we were going to clean house. So I was assured that when we brought that amendment to the floor. a bipartisan group from the oldest Members to the newest Members. that surely it would be gone by the end of the day. The bill was stalled. took a while. seemed. to take a few days. I thought it would be one day and it moved to the next. Lost by 13 votes. It seemed a little intriguing until the next year we found the tobacco lobby had cut 165 checks within 48 hours of that vote. Unfortunately. some of them had been passed out here. very close to the vote. very close to where we were voting. The next year. I thought. well. surely people with the disgust at what the tobacco industry is doing. marketing to our children. we will win this .vote on a crop subsidy. targeted to children. intended to harm. But no. lost by two votes. just two votes. as even people did not vote. walking from the floor. Why is that happening? I could not quite understand it. And I still do not understand it. But today. actually now later in the day. or I guess tomorrow now. we will have the vote again and some will say. as we are voting. well. the small tobacco companies need it. or the farmers. The reality is they are not the ones passing out checks here to keep that. It is the large tobacco companies wanting to keep a hold on what they believe is their position here in Congress. making sure that they still have their insurance subsidized. I heard the argument that. well. it is only right. they are a crop. Then I realized that we have thousands of crops. Only a few dozen have subsidies. and only a few are insured by the Federal Government. Now. I can understand sugar. although I do not understand why we are subsidizing that. I -could maybe understand peanuts. because like sugar. at least it feeds children. But tobacco? Subsidizing the insurance? Charging it to those same children that it is aimed to harm? No. tomorrow I think this Congress is going to have a chance to show whether we believe in balancing the budget and whether we believe in going to those things that are unnecessary first. and also it will show a little bit about what happens here when money flows from large corporations to campaigns and to parties. Earlier today it was disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last few days had been given to both parties from the tobacco industry in what is called soft money. the soft money being given to the party because. see. if that was given to a candidate or used against a candidate in a TV ad. how would taxpayers feel about seeing that R.J. Reynolds paid for this ad at the bottom of the ad. which is the law. They have to show who pays for the ad. so. instead. they give it to the parties. They launder it through and it comes out as paid for by the Republican or Democratic Party. Soft money. See. the tobacco companies are smart. They know they are not popular. but they still want to control. So they give their money. as one of the most lucrative groups in the Nation. to keep their control. to keep their hands around our political system by giving it to the two major parties. The same soft money system that funneled the money that went through the White House to the Democrat Party from mainland China. Tonight we can surmise. or I will surmise two things: Tomorrow we will see just how much power money has over American politics. Even that power that. has to be hidden. And tomorrow we will see whether or not we can say no to those that give the hundreds of thousands. no. actually the millions of dollars to this political system. for something that costs billions. The American people only get 30 minutes because we do not want them to watch law. but they can see tomorrow.