On the recordJune 20, 2012
this is an amendment that both Senator Durbin and I have offered. It is not nearly as severe as the GAO's recommendation for this program. The very wealthiest of farmers, in terms of income in this country, are the people most likely to buy less crop insurance, not more. Yet we subsidize them at the same rate as we do the middle-income and lower income farmers. This is straightforward. If you want to save $1 billion, if you want to tackle the debt, here is a way that will allow us to save $1 billion and not put anybody at risk. Highly capitalized farmers don't insure at the same rate as lower capitalized farmers. This will be the only program, if this amendment doesn't pass, that doesn't have a payment limitation on it in terms of adjusted gross income. So there should be no question we should do this just in terms of fairness of all the sacrifices we are going to ask everybody else in this country to make in the coming years. This ought to be part of this farm program. I yield back. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. Who yields time? The Senator from Kansas.
