Political Quotes

“I come to the floor now with my friend and colleague from the State of Oklahoma, Senator Coburn, to discuss an amendment we hope to offer to the farm bill, which I believe is the pending matter before the Senate. I will make a brief statement and then yield to my colleague from Oklahoma. As I said, I come to the floor to speak about an amendment I intend to offer with Senator Coburn. Our amendment would reduce the level of premium support for crop insurance policies by 15 percentage points for farmers with an adjusted gross income over $750,000 a year. According to a recent GAO report, the Federal Government pays, on average, 62 percent of crop insurance premiums for farmers. Let me put that in perspective. These farmers are buying insurance so they can protect themselves against the risk of low prices or bad weather, and the premiums that are charged to them are collected to pay to those farmers who collect. At the end of the day, 62 percent of the value of the premiums for the crop insurance are paid by the taxpayers. In other words, there is a 62-percent Federal subsidy on these premium support payments for crop insurance across America. The amendment which I will offer with Senator Coburn would change that. The reason came out very clearly in the GAO report on crop insurance.…”