“Once again President Clinton is showing his contempt for the tobacco farming family.  In addition to imposing another 25-cent tax on tobacco products, he is promising to penalize the tobacco industry for underage smoking.  This translates into an additional tax on the American consumer.  Our Eastern North Carolina farmers and their families have suffered enough this year.  When will the President stop using tobacco as the scapegoat to fund his big government agenda?
 
“Congress has worked hard over the last few years to get America to a point where we anticipate budget surpluses instead of budget deficits.  Now that we have accomplished our goal, the President is raising taxes again to fund his personal shopping spree.  It doesn’t make sense to continue increasing taxes when we already have a surplus of taxpayer dollars.  Yet the President has called for the creation of over 80 new programs and an increase in spending on another 155 programs and wants hardworking, overtaxed Americans to fund his agenda.

“In his State of the Union address, President Clinton said he wanted to pay down the public debt, help our nation’s farmers, strengthen Social Security and Medicare, increase defense spending, and reduce the marriage penalty tax.  These are priorities we can all support and work together to achieve.  But we cannot afford to squander the surplus while we tax American families to pay for new programs.  

“I urge President Clinton to work with Congress to fund our nation’s priorities and provide hardworking American families with the tax relief they need and deserve.”