Christopher Shays: “I am one of a few Republicans in Congress who represent an urban area, yet when it came time to end the broken system of…”

“I am one of a few Republicans in Congress who represent an urban area, yet when it came time to end the broken system of social welfare, I voted for it and I'm proud to say that welfare reform has been a tremendous success in my district and across the nation. We did the heavy lifting in 1996. Now it's time we got the rich farmers off welfare. There aren't a whole lot of farmers who are much better off than the sugar producers who've made a living--no, a killing!--off of government subsidies and production controls. I think Karl Marx, even on a sugar high, couldn't have come up with anything as market-distorting and anti-competitive as the sugar program in this Farm bill. This legislation rolls back the modest reforms of 1996 by reimposing federal limits on how much sugar can be grown and sold in the United States. To truly appreciate this government hand-out, consider that last year the federal government spent nearly half a billion dollars to buy one million tons of surplus sugar.”