Bush Tobacco Statement Called A 'Slap' at Farmers

Source from:  Charlotte (NC) Observer Observer Washington Bureau 05/09/2004

Quote appears to be against proposal of aid. N.C. Democrats are calling a statement President Bush made to a Cincinnati newspaper a "slap" at the state's tobacco farmers, while Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole was so put off by the president's comment Friday that she called two top White House aides to her office and put in a call to Karl Rove, Bush's political guru. In an interview that was published Wednesday, The Cincinnati Post reported that Bush said, "They've got the quota system in place ... and I don't think that needs to be changed." Bush's statement appears to signal his opposition to bills -- championed by Dole and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., in the Senate and Rep. Bobby Etheridge, D-N.C., and others in the House -- that would do away with the 65-year-old tobacco price support system and set up a multibillion-dollar buyout for leaf growers and quota holders. Tobacco companies would have to foot the bill. North Carolina's 15,000 tobacco farmers and 90,000 quota holders -- a quota amounts to federal permission to grow tobacco, which some retirees and others lease to active farmers -- say they need the buyout to survive at a time when tobacco companies are buying more leaf overseas. Etheridge, who has repeatedly written the White House asking for its support of the quota buyout, called Bush's comment "a slap in the face of tobacco growers (at a time when) farm families face their most desperate hour." Erskine Bowles, the Democrats' candidate to succeed Edwards in the Senate, sought to heap some blame for Bush's statement on his GOP opponent, Rep. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem: "The fact that President Bush is unaware of (N.C. farmers' plight) means that Richard Burr and other members of his party have not done enough to make the tobacco buyout a priority." But Burr pointed out that under President Clinton, when Bowles was White House chief of staff, tobacco was "a whipping boy ... We're not talking (under Bush) about new lawsuits against (the tobacco industry) and new taxes (on cigarettes)." Still, Burr said Bush's White House needed further "education" on the issue. A spokesman for Dole said "she made it very clear (to the White House aides) that the buyout is a top priority for her and for the state's economy." Enditem