Political Quotes

“I rise this morning to talk for a few minutes about the critically important public health issue of keeping America's youngsters from beginning to smoke. This is a public health problem that is growing. Three thousand youngsters in our country every day start smoking and eventually 1,000 of those kids will die of smoking-related illnesses. Most importantly, this is a public health problem that is getting worse. Last week, we learned the tragic news based on a study from the University of Michigan that smoking among eighth graders is up 30 percent in our country. Until recently, there have been two options for dealing with all this. One was to regulate tobacco through the Food and Drug Administration. Last year, I asked each of the tobacco executives whether they believed nicotine was addictive. Each one of them said, no, but they are clearly wrong. Tobacco is addictive. It has drug-like properties, and the evidence is in that the Food and Drug Administration has the legal authority to regulate the product. Unfortunately, if this option is chosen, if the FDA chooses to regulate tobacco, what will happen is the tobacco companies will go to court, they will sue and we will lose another generation of our children to political gridlock and infighting. So I and other Members of Congress believe that it is time to explore other options. In exploring these options, let us try to set aside the politics that rage about this issue and do what is best for our children.”