Tom Harkin: “The interest rate was raised in the bill to meet budget considerations. They were looking for every bit of money they…”

“The interest rate was raised in the bill to meet budget considerations. They were looking for every bit of money they could find to meet the budget, and so someone, I do not know whom, decided, well, we will raise the interest rates on Commodity Credit Corporation loans to farmers by a percent, and that gained us $260 million. We are not now engaged in a budget debate. That has gone. We have room within the budget for this. That is the key. There is room in the budget for this. Let us take this $260 million that my friend from Indiana said is costing taxpayers. No, it is not. What this $260 million represents is $260 million taken from farmers. That is what it is. Farmers pay it. If we do not have them pay it, that means farmers get to keep that $260 million over 7 years. Now, if we take it from them, what is the difference between that and a tax, I ask you? It is a tax on farmers. And, no, it is not true that taxpayers have to pay it. That is not it at all. Why should farmers get a better rate on their commodity loans than they can get at the local bank? Why should they? I will tell you why. Because a farmer, an individual farmer out there does not have the economic clout to go to the big banks in Chicago or New York or Kansas City and get the prime rate. They have to pay whatever the local rate is.”