Political Quotes

“Where in the world have you been to try to stop it? Nowhere. You just want to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes, on a pack of cigarettes to stop kids from smoking. That is it. That is what you are saying. But there is a bill here to get rid of it. No one wants to join in that effort. So it is kind of tough for me, coming from a tobacco State, trying to do what everybody here is talking about, except let the adults have a choice. I think that is what it ought to be. But, no, we want to add the tax on. We want to reduce by 35 percent--I heard the Senator from Massachusetts say it is only one-third of 1 percent of the budget. It reduces 35 percent of the tax cut. That is a pretty healthy hunk. One State gets $29 million under this bill of the so-called Kennedy-Hatch. And it is $1.4 billion additional taxes to that State. So they do not come out ahead. How do they come out ahead? They have to match if they voluntarily accept it. Under this bill, they have to match. And they are mandated--mandated--on what they do once they accept it. I do not understand. People talk about trying to save kids. You have an opportunity to do it. But, no, they want the issue. They want the issue. Bigger Government, less tax cuts, but they do not want to get at the real root of the thing and try to begin to work. For months now--month after month after month--you refuse to join with some of us, even from tobacco States, that want to stop kids from smoking.”