Bob Wise: “I always hesitate to enter this debate, but I think it is an important one. I always put out my caveats to begin with.…”

“I always hesitate to enter this debate, but I think it is an important one. I always put out my caveats to begin with. First of all, I do not smoke; I do not counsel anybody to smoke. Second, I support the basic thrust of the FDA regulations that would prevent young people or seek to prevent young people from smoking or having accessibility to cigarettes. And, third, so that this issue of who gets what campaign contributions is off the table, I have declined to accept tobacco contributions so that when I argue this no one can charge any kind of financial motivation. But, Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment because this is not about big tobacco, No. 1. Big tobacco is the tobacco company that makes the product. This is about a lot of small farmers, of which there are hundreds in West Virginia. We are pale in comparison to the Kentuckys and North and South Carolinas of the world, but yet we do have a large number of small tobacco farmers that are making this as a part-time living. But I simply do not understand what is gained by kicking a lot of small tobacco farmers in the teeth.”