Chip Taylor

Tobacco farmer buyout

It's part of the corporate welfare bill working its way through Congress. From the New York Times:

It was supposed to be the deal that finally broke the logjam on a $140 billion corporate tax bill, but it could end up causing a new stalemate down the road.

When House Republicans bring the bill up for a floor vote this week, it will contain a provision that would pay tobacco farmers $9.6 billion to give up a system of quotas and price supports that dates back to the Depression.

If it becomes law, large tobacco farmers will be entitled to payments worth tens of millions of dollars. But while the concept has support among lawmakers in both parties, House Republican leaders allowed virtually no debate and no chance to vote on the provision when the House Ways and Means Committee approved the bill shortly before midnight on Monday.

Opponents have denounced it as an expensive giveaway, but the deal may have persuaded as many as 10 House Democrats from tobacco-producing states to vote for the overall tax bill.

Still, the tobacco deal is likely to raise new problems in the Senate, where Republicans are already worried about the cost of the House bill. Senate Democrats are demanding that any tobacco buyout be linked to legislation that would let the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco as a drug.

House Republican leaders adamantly oppose that idea, and the tobacco industry is split on the issue. Philip Morris has said it favors federal regulation, but most of the other big cigarette companies oppose it.