Bill Clinton: “Well, the Senate has to come back to it, but they have to do it in a hurry if we're going to act. After all, we only…”

“Well, the Senate has to come back to it, but they have to do it in a hurry if we're going to act. After all, we only have 6 weeks until the August recess--not quite that--and then we have only a month or so when they come back, the month of September, because they will doubtless want to go home in October to campaign. So the parameters of this bill are well-known--what has to be done to get a bill that can not only pass but can actually be effective, not only in raising the price of cigarettes but in limiting advertising and having smoking cessation programs and giving the public health money out there, the research money we need--everybody knows what has to be done. We showed a lot of flexibility here in trying to work with the Members of the Senate. We had a tax cut in there to deal with the marriage penalty for people with incomes under $50,000. We had some more antidrug money in there. The lawyer fee issue was addressed in the amendment most recently adopted. We can do this, and we need to do it and do it promptly. There is not a lot of time, but I think it would be a great mistake for those who believe that because of the $40 million ad campaign by the tobacco industry, which has gone unanswered and which has a lot of things in it which are just false, that they can now have a free ride on this to walk away from 1,000 lives a day. We don't have a free ride to walk away from 1,000 lives a day. And I believe we can do it.”