Washington spends $60 million to discourage smoking and $60 million to help grow tobacco, lawyer says
One hand warns that smoking can kill you, while the other pays to help grow the tobacco.
Peter Santenello · Inside America's Corruption Capital - Washington D.C. 🇺🇸Benjamin, a First Amendment attorney who previously advised leaders of the Federal Election Commission, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal public health agency, spends about $60 million a year telling Americans not to smoke because smoking can kill them.
He says the Department of Agriculture spends about the same amount, $60 million, helping American farmers grow tobacco, calling the contrast schizophrenic spending paid for by the same taxpayers.
Questions people ask
What does the CDC spend that anti-smoking money on?
Most of it goes to advertising, especially the Tips From Former Smokers campaign. Those are the television, radio, and online ads in which former smokers describe living with lung disease, throat cancer, and other effects. The CDC has run the campaign since 2012 and credits it with helping hundreds of thousands of people quit.
Why would Washington subsidize tobacco at all?
Tobacco was long treated like other supported farm crops, with price supports, quotas, and research and export help meant to protect farmers and rural jobs. Direct price supports ended with a buyout law in 2004, but tobacco farmers can still use general farm programs such as federally subsidized crop insurance.