Political Quotes

“And there will not be for a while. Mr. President, there is a lot of tobacco bashing going on and I understand that better than anybody in this Chamber. An agreement that has been negotiated--and my good friend from Illinois, even though we disagree on this, we are friends, understands--that negotiation is continuing and we will be called upon to make the ultimate decision as to whether that negotiated package will fly, will be passed, worked out, whatever. Many parts of that negotiated agreement take care of everything that has been said by my two colleagues, except the farmer. The farmer was never at the table. You say you will hear a lot about protecting farmers, the little farm. You are darn right; you will hear a lot about it. They were not at the table, they were not considered, and so therefore, here we come, bashing the farmer again. You say it is a lucrative crop. Well, let's look at something here. Kentucky's average farm size is 159 acres. The average farm size of Illinois is 370--that is the difference. Kentucky's average gross income per farm is $42,000 and the net to that farm is $11,000. The Illinois average gross income per farm is $128,000, three times what Kentucky's average farm income is, and their gross profit is more than double, $25,000 net profit. That is an Illinois farm compared to a Kentucky farm. We talk about the gross net profit from one crop which is about an acre, 1 acre, you get $1,800. But the farmer has to be considered. The package has not.…”