Dick Lugar: “I am most hopeful we are going to have a strong vote for the Lugar amendment because I believe it is a good amendment…”

“I am most hopeful we are going to have a strong vote for the Lugar amendment because I believe it is a good amendment for all Americans. I stress that because sometimes in our zeal in these agricultural debates we are doing the very best we can for those in agricultural America, and that may be in many of our States as much as 2 percent of the population. But the rest of America also listens to this debate and wonders why there should be, as in the underlying bill, a transfer of $172 billion over the next 10 years from some Americans to a very few Americans--particularly, if 60 percent of the farmers don't participate at all and if it is narrowed to those who have very large farms. Most Americans, when confronted with that proposition, don't like it. I am preaching today, I suppose, to the choir of all Americans and hoping that agricultural America also understands that if we are ever to have higher prices and market solutions on farms, we must get rid of the subsidies that are a part of the underlying bill.”