Saxby Chambliss: “Mr. President, we spend a lot of time here talking about whether we can afford things and trying to save money. My…”

“Mr. President, we spend a lot of time here talking about whether we can afford things and trying to save money. My father was in the insurance business. In fact, he was commissioner of insurance in the State of Missouri when I was in high school and college. I have no problem with insurance companies making a profit. They are businesses; they should make profit. But we have to take a close look when it is taxpayer-subsidized profit. We are not talking about the normal profit of a private business. We are talking about taxpayer-subsidized profit. I don't care how you look at this insurance industry in this particular niche, this is a wildly profitable insurance industry right now, billions and billions of dollars in profit over the last several years. You have to ask yourself: Isn't there a way we can continue to make sure that crop insurance is readily available? Keep in mind this amendment does nothing whatsoever to cause costs to go up for the farmers. The premium subsidies remain the same. What this does is say: We can't continue with the deficits we have. We can't afford to do children's health insurance. The President vetoes that.”