Word: tobacco
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...committee's version was even more generous. But the united front usually exhibited by farm-state legislators, in which each protects the others' commodities, showed signs of weakness. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Jesse Helms of North Carolina had his staff draw up a bill that mainly protected tobacco and peanuts, important products of his state. Senator Robert Dole of Kansas quietly worked on his own version, eventually adopted by the committee, which doubled Reagan's proposed subsidies for wheat and corn. Reagan further fractured farm unity by promising Southern Democrats, whose votes he needed for his economic...
Sugar and tobacco interests fared better. After three years of doing fine without Government subsidy, sugar will now be supported at 180 per Ib. for no good reason other than the clout that sugar interests wield. But the Senate did cut back on the increase in grain target prices recommended by the agriculture committee and farm lobbyists. The committee bill would provide subsidies when wheat prices fall below $4.10 per bu. The full Senate lowered that target...
...rules for escaping jury duty are equally diverse. Courts generally exempt doctors and lawyers and those who can demonstrate hardship. But tobacco farmers are exempted during harvest time in Virginia; South Carolina still excuses "apothecaries"; Indiana excuses ferryboat operators. For those who must serve, the first thing to learn is to wait. "It's waiting for the judge, waiting for the lawyers, waiting to be called. It's not amusing or fun; it's just a duty," says Gwen Pritchard, a Washington lobbyist, standing in the hallway of the District of Columbia courthouse...
Only when it comes to tobacco has Helms behaved with ordinary congressional pragmatism. The several federal tobacco programs amount to one of the most thoroughgoing intrusions of Government into the agricultural marketplace. Helms, the ferocious free-marketeer, nonetheless strives to perpetuate it. But even in serving that home-state interest (North Carolina produces 40% of the U.S. crop), he has not been altogether successful. As the new chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Helms insisted on a farm bill that would cut food stamps drastically. But his fellow Republicans on the panel, who knew the reductions would draw fierce Senate opposition...
...that he isn't loyal to the tobacco cause. Helms smokes (but does not always inhale) an occasional Lucky Strike. When others light up in his presence, he says, " 'Predate it." Indeed, Helms' single flamboyance is a maniacal Southern courtesy: he grabs every serving spoon, offers to carry every bag and sheaf in sight and opens every door. In fact, he does not just open a door; he sweeps his beneficiary through with a bow and a flourish...