Angie Craig: “I am outraged that there are a good number of folks who would like to hide behind the idea of teenage smoking to raise…”

“I am outraged that there are a good number of folks who would like to hide behind the idea of teenage smoking to raise more taxes than this Senate will ever have raised with the sweep of one vote and to create more official bureaucracies in big government than we have ever created by one vote. That is exactly what you are tending to do. Let me tell you where the outrage is. It is outside the beltway. It is the average taxpaying citizen who says, ``By golly, they figured out another way to do it. They balanced the budget. Now they will raise nearly $600 billion in taxes and they will create all kinds of bureaucracies.'' And the latest polls--and they are not biased polls, they are taken across the board--say that this bill will not stop teenage smoking. Why? Because we don't go at it how you go at a teenager. I am all for making tobacco a controlled substance, and I think this Senate is. I want to get tobacco out of the hands of teenagers, and we ought to. We ought to do exactly what the States are doing.”