    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 27, 1998]
    [Pages 630-631]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Receiving the Surgeon General's Report on Tobacco Use Among
    Minority Groups
    April 27, 1998

        Thank you very much, Dr. Satcher, for the
    exceptional report. I thank all those who worked on it. Mr. Vice
    President, Secretary Shalala, thank you for your long and constant fidelity to
    this cause. Thank you, Senator Frist, for being
    here, for demonstrating that it is a medical, not a political issue, and
    an American, not a partisan issue. You gave us a ``two-fer'' today, and
    we thank you for that. You were great. [Applause] Thank you.
        I also thank Senator Hatch and Senator
    Chafee for being here, all the Members of the
    House of Representatives. I thank the leaders of the Native American
    tribes who are here. I especially thank the attorneys general who are
    here. They had a lot to do with beginning this long struggle to free our
    children from tobacco, and they deserve a lot of the credit for the
    efforts that are now going on. And I'd like to thank the young people
    who are standing behind me and those whom they represent, all across
    America, in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Youth. They represent the
    future we are trying to preserve.
        This report gives us fresh evidence that those of us in this society
    who are adults, and especially those of us who are parents, are not
    doing our jobs very well. Any of us who have ever been parents know that
    our most profound and instinctive urge is to protect our children from
    danger so that they can grow up healthy, safe, and secure.
        Just today I was talking, before I came in here, with a Member of
    the House who was at our previous event, and he was talking about a
    young staff member of his who was dealing with a serious health problem.
    And he choked up; he couldn't even finish the conversation. And he's a
    good person with a good heart, but that reflects the natural human
    response we have to protect our own children and all those who are of
    the younger generation from whatever dangers we can, in the hope that
    they will have the opportunity to live full, good lives.
        Well, we've done a good job over the years of strapping our kids
    into seatbelts in cars, in safety seats. We do a pretty good job of
    bundling up children against the winter cold; not many of them die of
    pneumonia anymore. We make sure that they get to school safely each day.
    But we haven't done what we should in wrapping the protective arm of
    parents and other adults in our society as a whole around them when it
    comes to resisting advertising, peer pressure, or whatever other forces
    get young people into smoking, even though it's illegal to sell
    cigarettes to children in every State in the United States.
        We know that today about a third of our children are smoking. The
    report issued by Dr. Satcher shows that more
    and more are becoming hooked on cigarettes. Smoking rates are up among
    teens of all backgrounds, but now we see especially among Hispanics,
    Native Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and especially and most
    dramatically among African-Americans, where the rates used to be
    dramatically lower than the average.
        These are children just starting out in life; they've got enough
    challenges as it is. We ought to do more to clear the way, to assure
    them the best possible chance at the future of their

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    dreams. Instead, they are still becoming the targets of highly
    sophisticated marketing campaigns. They are the ``replacement smokers''
    of the advertisers' strategy. But they are our children, and we can't
    replace them.
        The call to action should be getting louder. Congress has a very
    important opportunity to build on the work done by the attorneys
    general, the representatives of individuals who have been harmed in
    smoking, and others--the work of the FDA--to pass a comprehensive,
    bipartisan tobacco bill that will cut teen smoking by raising the price
    of cigarettes, putting into place tough restrictions on advertising and
    access, imposing strong penalties on those who continue to sell
    cigarettes to children, ensuring the FDA has the authority it needs to
    regulate tobacco products, protecting farmers and farming communities,
    and yes, doing what Dr. Satcher says we still
    need to do, continuing to invest more in research to find out the
    answers that we don't have yet in this regard.
        A bill sponsored by Senator McCain and voted
    out of the committee with all but one vote--a unanimous vote save one--
    is a good step in that direction, because it explicitly changes the
    rules of the game to make it much harder for the tobacco industry to
    profit at the expense of our children's health.
        I want to say a special word of thanks, too, to Senator
    Frist, because he's worked so hard to make sure
    that the bill provides the FDA with the authority it needs to continue
    to cover tobacco products.
        Now, folks, the Surgeon General has just
    issued his first report. It's a fine report. It's a compelling report.
    It is obviously compelling to the leaders of the groups from whom these
    children come, because they have come here. We know what the danger is.
    We know what the remedy is. They're just kids; we're the grown-ups. Now,
    if we know what the danger is and we know what the remedy is, are we
    going to do what it takes to save their lives and their health and their
    future, or not? It is as simple as that. This is not rocket science.
        I have been profoundly moved by the extent to which this really has
    become an issue about health, not politics, an issue about our children,
    not partisan differences. Every step along the way we have been able to
    reach across party lines; we've been able to put aside rhetoric; we've
    been able to try to look to the health issue of our children.
        Now, I know there are some complexities surrounding this issue.
    There are complexities: How much money should be raised? How should it
    be spent? How should we assure the continuing jurisdiction of the FDA?
    Exactly what are the nature of the advertising restrictions? There are
    complicated questions. But my experience now, after many, many years in
    public life, is that all the complicated questions get much simpler if
    you focus on the big issue.
        The big issue is that the children behind us deserve to have a
    future, and we know that unless we do something to stop them from being
    treated as replacement smokers, their future will be restricted. That is
    the big issue. We know what the problem is; we know what to do about it.
    I suggest that these children--you look at them, look at all those they
    represent, look at those who don't yet have the good sense to put their
    tee shirts on and join their crusades--and it becomes pretty clear that
    we need to take this very first report by our latest distinguished
    Surgeon General and do the right thing with
    the report and for our children.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. The report was entitled ``Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic
    Minority Groups.''