Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from Oklahoma. Let's get it straight: Every farmer buying crop insurance gets a subsidy. The question is, How big is the subsidy? Is it 62 percent of the actual premium cost--that is what they are all receiving now--or will it be 47 or 48 percent, which is what we are suggesting, for 1 percent of the farmers, of the wealthiest farmers. How many farmers are we talking about? There are roughly 2 million farmers in America. The people we are talking about number 20,000. There are 20,000 farmers who would be affected by our amendment. One would think we are about to destroy agriculture in America. There are 2 million farmers, and all of them get a subsidy. Senator Coburn and I are saying: Let's nix the subsidy for the wealthiest. What we hear is that is too much to ask--it is too much sacrifice. I don't think so. One example in Illinois--and I will not read the examples from other Midwestern States--a corn and soybean grower received $740,000 in premium subsidies to cover the crops he planted in my State in 18 counties. There are 102 counties in Illinois. We would cut his subsidy from $740,000 to $639,000. Does anyone think he will notice? Does anyone think he will stop buying crop insurance on what he has planted in 18 counties? I don't think so. At a time when we are asking people in the Head Start Program to make a sacrifice across America, can we at least ask for a little bit of a sacrifice from the 20,000 of the wealthiest farmers out of 2 million?…”