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OCR Page 1 of 31THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 19, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
The Cabinet Room
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, let me say good morning,
and as you can see, I'm about to meet with my economic team to
discuss the present state of the American economy, the developments
in the world, and how we can keep our economy growing. We're going
to talk about the importance of promoting stability in Asia and
meeting our obligations to the IMF, the importance of preserving the
surplus until we resolve the issue of saving Social Security for the
21st century, the importance of not destabilizing our economy with
gimmicks like getting rid of the tax code before we know what will
replace it, and the importance of continuing our strategy of long-
term investments to grow the American economy through education and
technology.
Let me also make a few brief remarks on another
obligation that we face, that I am still determined to see through --
and that is our obligation to the public health of our children and
to protect them from the dangers of tobacco. We have a chance, as
all the surveys show, to save about a million lives a year if we do
the right thing on reducing childhood smoking. For six months we
have worked hard and in good faith to meet all legitimate objections
to the legislation and to join together the priorities of both
parties.
Let me just be clear about this: every Senator who
voted to kill this bill not only voted against the provisions which
will help to prevent teen smoking, which will help to put more
research into dancer research and to other public health problems and
help to promote smoking cessation programs; they also voted against
fixing the marriage penalty and giving a tax break for working
families with incomes under $50,000. They voted against new measures
to crack down oh drugs. They voted against life-saving research.
They also voted not to implement a program that can save a million
lives a year. It was a vote against our children and for the tobacco
lobby. It's as simple at that; it is not complicated.
Now, some have suggested that Congress should now just
get in line and do what the tobacco lobby wants them to do. That's
the new suggestion: well, let's just do what the tobacco companies
will let us do, and appear to be passing a bill that will reduce teen
smoking, that everybody knows will not have very much influence, if
any, on the problem.
I'm going to stick with the public health servants of
this country. I'm going to stick with the people who know what it
takes to do the job. And most importantly, we're going to stick with
the children and their future. And I hope, therefore, that we can
still stay in here and keep working, get a bill that will increase
the price of cigarettes enough to deter smoking, that will have
strong advertising restrictions, that will have strong access
restrictions, that will invest in public health and do something
honorable for the tobacco farmers.
Now, the Republican majority may want the tobacco
companies to run the Congress on this issue. I don't. I think we
ought to do this for the people. I think we ought to vote like
parents, not politicians, and I still hope we can do that.
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