Judd Gregg: “I join with those who have expressed very severe reservations and concerns about this bill. It is an extraordinarily…”

“I join with those who have expressed very severe reservations and concerns about this bill. It is an extraordinarily expensive piece of legislation. This legislation is not only going to cost the taxpayers of America a great deal of money--much more than has ever been paid out before in the area of farm subsidies-- but it is a bill that takes us down the wrong path in the area of how we should address production of farm commodities in our country. Nobody questions that farmers are the hardest working people you meet. At all levels of life, as you come across people, the farmer is somebody who puts in incredible hours, who works from dawn to dusk in most instances--unless they are a corporate farm owner--the people out there actually doing the farming. They love their job, usually. That is why they do it. They are a contributor of immense proportions to our society, both from the standpoint of being hard workers and extraordinarily productive citizens, but also in setting a tone and a character for our Nation and the communities in which they live. Unfortunately, the system they are caught up in--not all, but those farmers who find themselves existing on the Federal payroll--is one that is fundamentally broken. Instead of a market system, it is a system of collectivization. It is truly ironic, in fact, when you think about it.…”