Willie Hefner: “there is legislation in both bodies of this Congress that would place an excise tax which I think is very punitive and…”

“there is legislation in both bodies of this Congress that would place an excise tax which I think is very punitive and does not serve the purpose that I believe that we should be doing. I do not believe that anyone wants to support children smoking. Certainly from the time I was a small child, my father always talked to me about how not to smoke; that it was not good for my health. I do not think there is any argument about that. But we have farmers all over this country that depend upon tobacco for their livelihood, and they have made investments, they have borrowed money against the allotments on their farms. So any legislation that passes this House should take into consideration the hardships that it could put on the hundreds of thousands of farmers all over this country that depend on tobacco for their livelihood. I would urge every Member of this House to be very cautious before we enter into any legislation that affects the tobacco farmer.”