Political Quotes

“it is with some potential embarrassment that I stand here and say I may be the only person in the Senate who lives on a farm and has done so for 36 years. It is a dairy farm, with cows in the pasture and in the barn. The neighbors are all dairy farmers--not all, but most. Meaning no disrespect, if anyone presumes to think that the American Farm Bureau speaks for the farmers of Delaware County, they have not been in Delaware County. An insurance firm looks after a very small number of very well-to-do people. In New York State, according to Ray Christensen, who was the Delaware County Republican supervisor before he became assistant commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Markets, the average sale price of a farm is about $257,000. Here--quite unexpected, but very welcome--in this morning's New York Times, the lead article of the business section talks about the Democratic estate tax plan. It cites Neil Harl, an Iowa State University economist who is a leading estate tax adviser to Midwestern farmers. He says that only a handful of working family farms have a net worth of $4 million. Above that, with very few exceptions, you are talking about the Ted Turners who own huge ranches and are not working farmers. Mr. Harl said he was surprised that farmers were not calling lawmakers to demand that they take the President up on his promise-- which the President has promised--to sign the Democratic bill.”