Political Quotes

“we see the House Republican leadership and the tobacco industry are united in their message. They are both attacking big taxes, big government, and saying there they go again. Tobacco companies have full page ads in newspapers all over the country saying, ``We want to attack big taxes and big government.'' Well, so do we. But what I want to be concerned about is the children that they have admitted to addicting for many years to tobacco. In testimony before our Committee on Commerce they agreed they marketed their industry to children 12 years old, 13 and 14-year-olds. That is why they agreed to a settlement to pay for what they did for the last 30 years to have those children addicted who are now my age. That is why they agreed to pay $300-plus billion now. What we want to do is make sure they do not continue to do that to the next generation, to addict more Americans at a young age. It is really sad that more children know Joe Camel than know Mickey Mouse. That is because of the success of their advertising campaign. Mr. Speaker, instead of attacking big government and big taxes, why not attack the issue of trying to stop children from smoking?”