Political Quotes

“a lot of words have been bandied about, one being hypocrisy, one inconsistency. Let me talk about hypocrisy. This amendment, no matter what the rhetoric is, goes just to the farmer. It does not stop anybody from smoking. It does not provide any health care. We keep on talking about the hypocrisy of the Federal Government. Let me talk about hypocrisy. On one side we want to cut the low man on the food chain, the farmer. On the other side we do not want to say a thing about the excise tax that these States collect from tobacco. New York, $674 million from tobacco excise tax. Are we stopping that? No. Hypocrisy. Colorado, $61 million from excise tax from cigarettes and tobacco alone; are we trying to stop that? No. Hypocrisy. Washington State, $257 million from tobacco excise tax; are we trying to cut that out? No. That is hypocrisy. Texas, $569 million of excise tax from tobacco. Are we going to cut that out? No. So when we speak of hypocrisy, Massachusetts, $230 million from excise tax, when we speak of hypocrisy, the hypocrisy is we want to take from the farmer but we want to stick it to the farmer at the same time.”