Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam President. I thank the senior Senator from Florida on this issue. I want to elaborate on it a little further. Any time we ask the taxpayers of this country to step in and help a private industry, it is important and incumbent on us to justify why. The amendment he just made that we have been working to get included in what is before the Senate obviously deals with agriculture at large, and he described some of the different industries in Florida that have been hurt in agriculture and some of the crops in Florida that were impacted by the storm. The reason I want to focus my attention on citrus is not because we don't care about the other industries that were damaged, but citrus is in a unique and precarious place. I want to describe it to people who may not be as familiar with this as those who live in Florida and see it all the time. First, I would say that one of the signature issues in the campaign and in politics today is the desire to make more and produce more in the United States; the idea that somehow, because of these changes in the global economy, we have lost significant industries to other countries, and we talk about that primarily in manufacturing, but we also talk about it in technology and things of this nature. I don't think we should leave agriculture out of that conversation. If we want there to be agriculture in the United States, then we have to deal with each of those crops and the unique challenges they face.…”