On the recordJune 20, 2012
this is a good farm bill. It eliminates direct payments and a lot of subsidies. But there is one aspect of Federal subsidy in this bill that goes untouched; it is the Federal subsidy from our Treasury to pay for the crop insurance premiums. Sixty-two percent, the GAO tells us, of crop insurance premiums are paid for by taxpayers, which means those who are using crop insurance are relying on the Treasury. So Senator Coburn and I, a political odd couple I will admit, said, for at least those making over $750,000 a year, we are going to trim the Federal subsidy by 15 percentage points. How many farmers would be affected by this nationwide--15,000 farmers out of 1.5 million. The Thune amendment says: We cannot reduce this subsidy, even though it saves us $1 billion. We cannot reduce this subsidy--in his language--if it adds any administrative expense. So if it costs $1 to even figure out who the 15,000 farmers are, no way we are going to save $1 billion. Vote against the Thune amendment and then vote for Durbin-Coburn. Voting for both does not get the job done. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
