Tom Harkin: “I point out sugar is so cheap in this country you cannot believe it. It is cheap for the consumers buying it in the…”

“I point out sugar is so cheap in this country you cannot believe it. It is cheap for the consumers buying it in the store. It is cheap when you go out to eat. The people who benefit from the Gregg amendment would be the manufacturers. They are not going to pass this on to the consumer. No way. We want to keep our sugar farmers in business; 420,000 Americans are employed in the sugar industry. It would ruin them. It would ruin our corn sweetener market, further depressing extremely low corn prices in my part of the country. This is wrapped up in a lot more than just what the price of sugar is that Senator Gregg is trying to get at. I have always said sugar is probably one of the cheapest products anywhere for consumers. Here is a bag of sugar, Holly Sugar. I am not pushing Holly Sugar, but that is what I happen to have. They are little bags of sugar. How expensive is this sugar? Go into any restaurant and take the sugar, put it in a glass, in your coffee; you can take two bags of sugar and put it in your coffee. Do you know what the price is? Nothing. It is so cheap that the restaurants do not even charge for it.”