Chuck Hagel: “The Federal Government, no government, can tax or regulate young people's behavior. That is silly. That is complete…”

“The Federal Government, no government, can tax or regulate young people's behavior. That is silly. That is complete folly. Come on. How many parents do we have in this body? How many people in this body have dealt with young people? I suppose everybody in this body remembers when they were 16, 17, 18--and you believe that the Government is going to regulate behavior and change behavior? We are going to make everybody's life-style healthier? That is another dynamic that has not been debated in this. Ignoring other problems--isn't it interesting that the real problems in this country for young people, far more severe and far more immediate, are with illegal drugs and underage alcohol use, but, yet, we are not talking too much about those issues today. Why aren't we? Because we are losing the illegal drug debate and war. More young people today are on illegal drugs than before. It is a tougher issue. It is everybody's concern. But we beat our breasts down here and say, aren't we doing something great because we are going to take care of underage cigarette smoking. By the way, you can look at numbers and polls on this. I know they all have them, and I have one done by Citizens for a Sound Economy, May 13 to 15 of this year, asking 1,200 Americans, as parents, what their biggest concern for teenagers is. No. 1, illegal drug use, 39 percent; gangs, 16 percent; alcohol, 9 percent; tobacco use, 3 percent.”