Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994 TAG: 9403220021
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GEORGE W. ABBOTT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Let's begin with a statement that both Carter and I agree on. According to his statistics and mine, the 75-cents-a-pack increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes will likely cause a 12 percent decline in cigarette sales. (Carter may see that as the maximum drop, though I tend to see it as a minimum.)
"This would not be devastating for tobacco farmers," Carter wrote. Carter then added some mumbo jumbo about the real decline being only 6 percent because of cigarette exports.
But as Carter points out, "tobacco farmers really are in trouble." Mr. Carter, are you seriously implying that whether the drop is 6 percent or 12 percent, the operations of farmers who are already "in trouble" won't be seriously, perhaps fatally, affected by higher taxes?
What Carter and people with similar thoughts so often ignore is that tobacco is a mighty stimulus to the American economy -particularly in the Southeast, where most American tobacco is grown and manufactured.
It is an entrenched part of our way of life ... and people depend on it. Tobacco is tough to grow and labor-intensive, but farmers know that no other crop - peanuts included - brings the same return or reward.
Programs to switch farmers to other crops, which Carter suggested, will do only one thing - force more farmers into bankruptcy.
His article showed disrespect for the part tobacco plays in our economy, as well as for the crop and the people who grow it.
The job-loss statistics being circulated in connection with President Clinton's proposed tax increase are not to be believed, wrote Carter, because they exceed the total number of jobs in the tobacco sector of the economy. That's pure nonsense. As a farmer in a small Southern town, Carter surely knows that a lot of jobs that have nothing to do with growing and selling tobacco depend on tobacco dollars.
Take tobacco money out of a community and see what happens at the bank, the mall, the beauty parlor, the dry cleaners. Jobs dry up. Depending on what part of the country you're in, that may be a few jobs or a lot of jobs.
In the South, it will be a lot of jobs. Carter has suggested that we sit by and take it on the chin for a health tax that is supposed to benefit the whole country. Many of us don't feel quite so generous.
Finally, although Carter seems to think otherwise, those of us who grow, manufacture and sell tobacco are not, as he puts it, "morally corrupt."
Most of us champion personal choice and personal responsibility, whereas the prevailing philosophy of Carter is that people can't make choices, aren't responsible and must be protected from themselves, as well as others.
Tobacco farmers don't need to be protected from themselves. They need to be protected from Bill Clinton and others who want to put them out of business.
If Jimmy Carter has the family farmer's interest at heart, he should be working to defeat any increase in the cigarette tax.
George W. Abbott is a tobacco warehouseman, farm-supply dealer and farmer who lives in Darlington, S.C.
by CNB