Chapter 32 Political issues

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Political issues: Federal and Congress

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Dozens of members of Congress and congressional aides spent three days in

February 1997 at the lavish Phoenician resort in Arizona, courtesy of the Tobacco

Institute. The "golf junket" was legal even though under new congressional ethics rules,

legislators may not accept gifts from special interests. However, they may accept

privately paid travel for educational, fact-finding events that are consistent with the

interests of their constituents.

Associated Press, February 18, 1997

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Margaret Carlson in an article "The Gravy Train Never Stops" from Time magazine

(January 19, 1998, p. 14) writes the following: "Last February, Congress Watch

documented a typical outing. The Tobacco Institute flew 11 members, including

Republican House leaders Tom DeLay and John Boehner, to the Phoenician, a

Scottsdale, Arizona resort, for a 'legislative conference,' complete with morning

seminars on the harmlessness of nicotine and afternoons free for golf and spa

treatments at the Centre for Well-Being, at a cost of $62,890. There's no linkage, of

course, but five months later the Republican leadership slipped a $50 billion tax break

for tobacco into the budget bill."

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Between 1984 and 1994, the cigarette industry donated $10.6 million to political

candidates. The Philip Morris political action committee made 4822 separate

contributions to 383 different candidates for the House and Senate between 1979 and

1994, giving them a total of $3.6 million.

Cigarette Confidential, p. 4

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The tobacco industry donated $5.7 million to the Republican party in 1995-1996. This

included $2.5 million from Philip Morris and $1.2 million from R.J. Reynolds.

Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1997, p. A24

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Monday, July 24, 2000

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