Political Quotes

“Senator, I agree with your statement. We have one principal objective with this legislation, and that is to reduce teenage smoking, to reduce this unconscionable level of death and damage that is inflicted upon our young people by their early addiction to tobacco. There are other issues that are being suggested--from reforming the tax law to an enhanced enforcement effort against illicit drugs--which are all important issues, and many of us have supported and advocated and led the charge on those issues on other days and in other forums. Our concern is--and I will not impugn the motives of any of the advocates of those other provisions--that some outside, and maybe a few inside, this Chamber would be pleased at the objection of these 'tantalizing but extraneous issues' because they would see them as a means of delay, obfuscation, and, eventually, defeat of comprehensive national legislation. What stuns me is that they don't also see what the alternative is. The alternative is not that defeat here will mean the American public will throw up its hands and say, 'I guess we have to accept the fact that 125 American young people will take up smoking every hour of every day of the 365 days of the year.' That will not be the alternative.”