John McCain
Town Hall Meeting
Denver, CO 05/02/08
TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: ". . . would you, at least, consider legislation since you were a big proponent against the anti-smoking, that we control tobacco . . . we get it away from the 7-11s and so forth, that we stop lawsuits, we stop any possible tax cuts for tobacco famers, we stop exporting Marlboro products across the globe. I mean, we're talking over years—you know, give tobacco farmers and the system through, but maybe stop smoking, stop trying to tax it out. Just say, 'It's a bad product for America.'
JOHN MCCAIN: "Yes sir. And the thing I was puzzled by was when we decided we would want to fund the children's health insurance, S-CHIP program with, guess what—taxes from the sale of tobacco products. Now somebody said, ' Can you help me out here?' So we want to fund a program to give children health insurance, but we want to fund it by encouraging people to use tobacco that kills ya. Only in Washington. Only in Washington could we come up with that kind of a scheme. I just want to mention one other thing about tobacco. And maybe expand just a bit. My friends, there's a farm bill before congress today that increases the subsidies, that gives some of your tax dollars to . . . people in agriculture that make as much as $950,000 a year, that subsidizes ethanol, which as distorted the market, which has then driven up food prices and it is a continuation, in all due respects, of business as usual in Washington, which has to change. I went to Iowa and campaigned in Iowa and said I was against ethanol subsidies and I was against the tariffs on imported ethanol from Brazil, which is made from sugar cane because it distorts the market. My friends, I commit to the agriculture community in America I will open every market in the world to the most productive and best worker and the best agricultural products ever produced but I will not support these subsidies and they've gotta stop. There's too many Americans that need our help now with your tax dollars."
LABEL: JM CO 5-2 (GR#83) DAGIS - Clip E
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