Mark Dayton: “plain and simple, the Bush administration is trying to make temporary side deals that run contrary to the actual…”

“plain and simple, the Bush administration is trying to make temporary side deals that run contrary to the actual DR-CAFTA treaty to get the votes necessary to pass it. With the sugar industry, the Secretary of Agriculture just yesterday announced his own farm program, with no congressional hearings or review, to be paid for with tax dollars, at his entire and sole discretion. It is, frankly, such an ill-considered, ill-designed, uneconomical and improper program that if any member of the Senate Agriculture Committee on which I serve introduced it, I think we would be run out of the room. If any Member on the floor introduced it, I think it would be defeated overwhelmingly by a vote. Yet it is supposed to be sweetening this agreement and making it palatable to pass tonight. The Secretary will buy U.S. sugar and convert it to ethanol for no good reason, or economical reason, except to get this agreement passed in the Senate. To their credit, the Minnesota sugar beet farmers, workers, and industry leaders are not buying this boondoggle. They know it is a bad deal for them. It is a bad deal for the U.S. agricultural economy, the ethanol industry, and the American taxpayers. It is claimed to be for them, but they don't want it. It is claimed to be good for them, but they know it is not.…”