Political Quotes

“Members, with this motion, we probe once more the influence of the powerful tobacco lobby on this Congress: The same tobacco companies that begin the addiction of 3,000 children in America every day to nicotine; the same tobacco companies that rank among the top soft money contributors to soften up the political leadership of this Congress; the same tobacco companies that give that soft money to produce a hard, bad deal for the ordinary working American; the same tobacco companies that snuck into this Congress earlier this summer and got themselves a $50 billion tax break, masquerading under the title ``Technical Amendments to the Small Business Job Protection Act,'' and then were so ashamed of it, they could not find anyone to claim authorship of that provision urged on by former Republican chair Haley Barbour. That same group seems to have no shame, because not having gotten enough in the past from this Congress with their audacity, they come forward today through the senior Senator from North Carolina, and they ask to have their claims put on top of the heroic men and women who fought our Nation's battles in the gulf war. The gentleman from Kentucky keeps referring to our clouding the issue this morning. Well, my colleagues, the only cloud here is a smoke cloud, a cloud of smoke that lingers over this Congress as long as the tobacco industry has a stranglehold on it.”