Art Small Condemns Tobacco Buyout



IOWA CITY – Art Small,
the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, today strongly condemned
the “American Jobs Creation Act” currently moving through Congress,
although he praised the one provision added by the Senate yesterday to
regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sales of cigarettes.

 

“The
original bill started out to put the United States in compliance with
World Trade Organization trade laws,” Small said. “We have known for
years that tax systems benefiting exports are clearly prohibited under
our international trade agreements. We are faced with growing duties on
certain exports, which hurt manufacturers and put American jobs in
jeopardy. We had a $4 billion problem because of those
unjustified tax breaks. That problem has to be corrected or American
companies would have even more difficulty selling products abroad. But
the bill turned into a $170 billion Christmas tree of special
interest giveaways that makes a mockery of the legislative process.”

 

“Where
else but in the world of catering to special interests would it take
$170 billion in handouts to tobacco growers and tax cuts for
corporations to remedy a $4 billion problem?” Small asked.

 

“The
bill gives tax cuts to corporations to send jobs overseas; it gives a
$12 billion handout to tobacco growers and makes about 500 landowners
instant millionaires; and it increases the deficit an additional
estimated $170 billion that will have to be paid for by our children
and grandchildren,” he said.

 

“The
most appalling provision of all is the $12 billion given to the
producers of nicotine, a lethal product that ruins the lives of so many
American families. Under this outrageous section, Big Tobacco will get
cheaper tobacco, even more tobacco will be grown, and the American
taxpayer will be the loser,” Small continued.

 

“Congress
is involved in an orgy of self-indulgence with this $170 billion tax
boondoggle,” Small stated.  “That is how great empires fail, so
focused on self and corporate and individual embellishment that they
forget about the community, they forget about their country, they
forget about investing in their people. They forget about investing in
jobs in America,” Small said. “The bill is a sham and a disgrace—and
everybody who voted for it should have known that.”