[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

[[Page 631]]

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.''