Political Quotes

“Agriculture in this country has very serious problems. It is the second year in a row that we had low commodity prices. Profits for farmers are 30 percent below what they were just a couple of years ago. We can lose maybe 10 percent of our family farms this year. We have got to come up with some Federal help. We have got to come up with an emergency bill this year. It might be as high as $6 billion or $7 billion or $8 billion if we want farmers in this country to continue producing the highest quality, lowest priced food in the world. If we lose our farmers and become dependent on other countries, we will have serious problems. Other countries will be able to dictate price and quality. A couple things in the tax bill that the conferees approved yesterday that help farmers: estate tax relief so farmers do not have to sell their farms to pay taxes, above-the-line health deductions so farmers and other self-employed can be like everybody else and not have to pay taxes on what they pay for health insurance; an increase in the amount allowed for first-year depreciation so if farmers buy machinery, they can deduct it in the year of purchase rather than a depreciation schedule where the deduction is reduced by inflation; ``FARRM'' IRA accounts so, in good years, farmers can put some money aside as a reduction in income and pay taxes on it when they use it in future low-income years; AMT, doing away with it so farmers are not forced to pay taxes when there is no profit.”