Frank Lautenberg: “I have respect for the Senator from Kansas. We have gotten to know each other a little bit. When we disagree, it is with…”

“I have respect for the Senator from Kansas. We have gotten to know each other a little bit. When we disagree, it is with a purpose of accomplishing something. When he talks about getting a big applause line in Kansas if there were to be the elimination of the subsidy for tobacco, well, I happen to agree with the Senator on the elimination of the subsidy for tobacco, but I wonder whether it would get an applause line in North Carolina or Kentucky or South Carolina. What if I were to say, well, let's reduce the cost for the Corps of Engineers, we don't have to do all that flooding work, or maybe eliminate the program for agricultural subsidies because in New Jersey our farmers are pretty close to market and they don't need a lot of subsidy, they don't draw down subsidy? The point I make--without being too challenging, or too pedantic--is that what the Senator described is exactly the problem, a Nation with 50 States, one Nation wanting each of us here--and there isn't anybody here who hasn't stood up to protect a program in their State without feeling that they are doing the right thing. I don't know of anybody here. We have to respect those differences. I am not saying promote tobacco. I am not saying encourage agriculture. I am not saying that we ought to have our ports dredged and no one else ought to have an opportunity to move their economies along. When we lose our beaches in a storm, it is no different than a flood in Kansas, or a drought, or a tornado.”