
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 21, 1991                   TAG: 9104220273
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SUBSIDY?/ TOBACCO AND TRUTH

THE TOBACCO Institute, the cigarette industry's lobbying arm, proclaims in its brochures that "There is No Tobacco Subsidy." There are two differences between this message and the health-hazard warning that appears on cigarette packs. (1) Only one is federally mandated. (2) Only one is true.

Under a 1986 law, spearheaded by Sen. Jesse Helms, cigarette companies can buy surplus tobacco from farmers at bargain prices; the government pays the farmers so they won't suffer any loss. Most people would call that a tobacco subsidy.

Most people probably don't know how generous Helms' program is. According to the Congressional Research Service, the eventual cost to taxpayers will range from $660 million to $900 million. That's a lot of money to pay for subsidizing a crop that kills hundreds of thousands of people.

by CNB