    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [January 17, 1998]
    [Pages 76-77]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    January 17, 1998

        Good morning. Today I want to talk about the steps we must take to
    protect our children and the public health from one of the greatest
    threats they face, tobacco. For years, tobacco companies have sworn they
    do not market their deadly products to children, but this week
    disturbing documents came to light that confirm our worst suspicions.
        For years, one of our Nation's biggest tobacco companies appears to
    have singled out our children, carefully studying their habits and
    pursuing a marketing strategy designed to prey on their insecurities in
    order to get them to smoke.
        Let me read you two of the most startling lines from an internal
    tobacco company presentation proposing a marketing campaign targeted at
    children as young as 14. Quote, ``Our strategy becomes clear: direct
    advertising appeal to younger smokers.'' Younger smokers, this document
    says also, and I quote, ``represent tomorrow's cigarette business.'' The
    message of these documents is all too clear: Marketing to children sells
    cigarettes.
        Today I want to send a very different message to those who would
    endanger our children: Young people are not the future of the tobacco
    industry; they are the future of America. And we must take immediate,
    decisive action to protect them.
        We know that every day 3,000 young people will start smoking, and
    1,000 of them will die prematurely due to tobacco-related disease. We
    know that 90 percent of adults who smoke--90 percent--began using
    tobacco before the age of 18. That is why, starting in 1995, we launched
    a historic nationwide effort with the FDA to stop our children from
    smoking before they start, reducing their access to tobacco products and
    severely restricting tobacco companies from advertising to young people.
    The balanced budget agreement I signed into law last summer includes a
    $24 billion children's health initiative, providing health coverage to
    up to 5 million uninsured children, paid for by tobacco taxes.
        But even these efforts are not enough to fully protect our children
    from the dangers of smoking. To do that, we need comprehensive
    bipartisan legislation. Last September I proposed five key elements that
    must be at the heart of that legislation. First, and most important, it
    must

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    mandate the development of a comprehensive plan to reduce teen smoking
    with tough penalties for companies that don't comply. Second, it must
    affirm the FDA's full authority to regulate tobacco products. Third, it
    must include measures to hold the tobacco industry accountable,
    especially for marketing tobacco to children. Fourth, it must include
    concrete measures to improve the public health, from reducing secondhand
    smoke to expanding smoking cessation programs to funding medical
    research on the effects of tobacco. And finally, it must protect tobacco
    farmers and their communities from the loss of income caused by our
    efforts to reduce smoking by young people.
        If Congress sends me a bill that mandates those steps, I will sign
    it. My administration will do all it can to ensure that Congress passes
    this legislation. In September I asked the Vice President to build bipartisan support for the legislation, and he
    has held forums all across our country to focus public attention on the
    issue.
        In a few weeks, my balanced budget proposal will make specific
    recommendations on how much the tobacco industry should pay and how we
    can best use those funds to protect the public health and our children.
    Today I want to let Members of Congress know that our administration
    will sit down with them anytime, anywhere to work out bipartisan
    legislation.
        Reducing teen smoking has always been American's bottom line and
    always our administration's bottom line. But to make it the tobacco
    industry's bottom line, we have to have legislation. This is not about
    politics. This is not about money. It is about our children.
        The 1998 Congress should be remembered as the Congress that passed
    comprehensive tobacco legislation, not the Congress that passed up this
    historic opportunity to protect our children and our future.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 10:50 a.m. on January 16 in the Oval
    Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on January 17.