Political Quotes

“if my colleagues eat, they are involved in agriculture and they have a stake in America's oldest and most basic policy. But our sugar policy is defective, counterproductive, and is suffocating our economy. The media has characterized it correctly as being a scandal. I am proud of the fact that I come from the State of Illinois, an agricultural powerhouse. I was raised on a small farm in Arkansas, and so I grew up enjoying the values of rural life. And I know what it means for a family to survive on hard work, ingenuity, creativity, and the sweat of their brow. I support Federal programs which create decent, livable help so that farmers can live a decent life. But when I find a program like the sugar program where 1 percent of the farms, just 17 farms, 1 percent, collect 58 percent of the subsidy, I am outraged. I am outraged because what it means is that the pot has already been sweetened for the wealthy, for the few. Mr. Chairman, subsidies should be given to the needy, not the greedy. The fallout from this wrong-headed sugar subsidy program ripples across our entire economy. I represent what could be called the candy capital of America. Illinois has 31,000 individuals employed in the confectionery industry, but we have lost 11 percent of our workforce, and there has been no new plant development since the institution of this program. We spent over $250 million for sugar last year.”