Don Nickles: “So there are lots of reasons to have concerns about this bill. I have mentioned the cost. I mentioned the enormous…”

“So there are lots of reasons to have concerns about this bill. I have mentioned the cost. I mentioned the enormous payments that would be made to some. I mentioned the fact that the total cash payments to farmers is really nonexistent because we did not count certificates. And then I look at the fact that we are getting agriculture in some areas where it really does not belong. What in the world are we doing with an onion program? What are we doing with subsidies for apples? And what are we doing reinstating a honey program that we finally stopped? Why are we reinstituting a program for wool and mohair, which was created decades ago, and it really is not necessary to have a national program? Why are we subsidizing the purchasing of all kinds of commodities just to prop up prices? Again, Federal Government intervention is like we do not believe in markets. And when we are talking about trade--and we have a trade bill on the floor of the Senate that we will be considering in a couple days--it is like, oh, yes, half of our trade negotiations are stuck in agriculture. For those who have not followed this issue, agriculture is very difficult to deal with in trade negotiations. We have just made it a whole lot worse. When we tell people, let's open up markets and we can compete--and we can compete in agriculture anywhere in the world--with this bill we are making it very difficult for our people.”