Jack Kingston: “one thing maybe we can agree on, on a bipartisan basis, is the sugar program. In a Congress where we are revising and…”

“one thing maybe we can agree on, on a bipartisan basis, is the sugar program. In a Congress where we are revising and cutting and reducing welfare, education, farm programs right and left. We are restructuring Medicare and the School Lunch Program. We are going after all commodities: Peanuts, cotton, wheat, the Market Promotion Program. The list is endless. But, Madam Speaker, what stands alone as the sweetest deal of all? Sugar. And the result: The world price of sugar is 11 cents per ton; the domestic price is 24 cents a ton. But does it really cost the taxpayers? Not directly, because they have got the USDA in on the thing. Who pays the difference though? Shoppers at the grocery stores, and it costs American consumers $1.4 billion. Who is getting rich on it? Plenty of sugar farmers out there. There are 33 farmers involved in the sugar program in Florida alone that receive over a billion dollars in payments. One gets about $65 million a year. Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Miller] and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer] have a bill to eliminate the sugar program, and I believe, Madam Speaker, we should bring this debate to the floor of the House for a yes-or-no vote.”