Trent Lott: “first, I listened with great interest to the comments of the Senator from Rhode Island about these two amendments. I…”

“first, I listened with great interest to the comments of the Senator from Rhode Island about these two amendments. I urge him to think about the end game and not just look at this vote or this amendment at this time. Like everybody else around here, people are assuming that if we have a bad bill at this point--which we do--or if we add an amendment here or there, that is going to become law. Somebody needs to think about how do we get to an end result that will achieve the things we want. If there ever is a bill, it will have a teenage smoking cessation campaign and it will have a drug abuse cessation campaign. It is very appropriate that we tie these two together. It will have additional help for health programs that have been affected by smoking. NIH, obviously, would be a major beneficiary, and it should be. We need research on the health problems caused by smoking. Medicaid and Medicare--that would be the end result. Somebody better think about how do you ever get an end result. If we don't add something on marriage penalty, tax relief, and on drugs, there won't be a bill. There will not be a bill. I want to remind everybody how we got to this point. First of all, Senator McCain, the manager of the bill, chairman of the Commerce Committee, had hearings; his committee met. They reported the bill out. I think it was 19 or 20-1. Republicans and Democrats voted for it.”