Max Baucus: “I think many minds on this amendment are already made up. I, just for a couple of minutes, would like to speak to those…”

“I think many minds on this amendment are already made up. I, just for a couple of minutes, would like to speak to those Senators who have not yet made up their minds. The point very simply is this: There are a good number of farmers and ranchers. I daresay most of them are in dire straits through problems and conditions that are no fault of theirs. They didn't cause them. Prices for their products are way below cost of production, whether it is wheat, cattle prices, whatnot. For example, in my State of Montana, farmers are getting $2 a bushel. They subtract from that $1 a bushel for freight costs and that ends up $1 a bushel. The price of a loaf of bread in the supermarkets is pretty close to that. There is no way in the world a farmer can begin to make ends meet in these conditions, and that is true for most farmers. The amendment before us is very simple. It just says take the cap off the loan rates just for crops that are harvested in 1998--not for next year, just 1998--to put a little bit of cash in farmers' pockets to help them pay the loans, to help them make the payments to the bank, to help them just a little bit. I must tell you, raising the caps is nowhere close to solving the problem. It is just a little bit. Why are prices so low? Very simply, because of worldwide production, countries are subsidizing producing wheat. Second, we are in dire straits because of the Asian crisis.”