Thomas Daschle: “Each day that we wait, 3,000 kids start to smoke; 1,000 of them will die prematurely of tobacco-related illnesses.…”

“Each day that we wait, 3,000 kids start to smoke; 1,000 of them will die prematurely of tobacco-related illnesses. Tobacco companies are targeting 12-, 13- and 14-year-old children as replacement smokers to fill the shoes of the 2 million smokers who quit or die each year. We have all heard the facts. Tobacco-related disease kills 400,000 Americans each year. So today's tobacco amendment, the McCain managers' amendment, is simply designed to deter teen smoking without raising all of the other issues that surfaced during the debate.”