James M. Jeffords: “if you only listened to the facts right now, you would come out with completely different conclusions than you would…”

“if you only listened to the facts right now, you would come out with completely different conclusions than you would from the positions people have been taking here. Let us remind ourselves, as far as this class warfare argument, just yesterday all of my friends voted in favor of the product liability bill, which has quite a different situation for small and big business. Why? Because small business obviously gets a greater hit, with a smaller amount of money. Well, the measure we are dealing with now will have a fee lower for the small farmers, the small users. All your small farmers--the only ones you are going to benefit, or the only ones my friends arguing so strongly against me are going to benefit, are the large corporate guys, the ones that do not need any help, the ones getting a benefit far above what the present price is for State lands, which we would charge them for private lands. So why in the world do my colleagues, who want to give all their smaller farmers a lower rate, want to vote against the amendment that would do that, when it only charges the wealthy and huge corporate ranchers the same as they pay on State lands? It does not make any sense at all. I do not understand it. It is just because we are so used to taking positions on one side or the other, and you cannot recognize when we are doing something to benefit you. It is purely to establish a system of equity and sense in the fee system.”