Dick Lugar: “I encourage Senators to vote against the Harkin amendment. It is, in fact, a $260 million subsidy to farmers.…”

“I encourage Senators to vote against the Harkin amendment. It is, in fact, a $260 million subsidy to farmers. Deliberately, farmers have been given a rate 1 percent less for a long time, at the Treasury rate as opposed to the commercial rate. If every other business in America had a similar advantage, that might be a different story but other business people do not. There was a time when we were interested in balancing the budget in this Chamber. This was $260 million of the savings involved in that situation. All we are asking for a vote ``no'' on this is that farmers have identically the same opportunity at commercial rates and that the $260 million of savings to the taxpayers be preserved.”