Political Quotes

“We have a major piece of legislation again being considered by this Congress, the farm bill. It expired in the last Congress; and, due to significant political machinations and controversies, we couldn't get it across the finish line because it was too expensive, didn't have enough reform, shortchanged nutrition and, frankly, didn't deal with the conservation elements that Americans care about. Well, we're at it again, and the big, contentious issues remain. The direct payments appear to be gone, subsidies that go to farmers regardless of whether or not they even farm the land; but the big, contentious issues remain. The issues of subsidization have simply migrated. There's an effort to have a shallow-loss provision or additional crop insurance subsidies that may actually end up being far more expensive than the direct payments they're supposed to be replacing. There is an ongoing controversy regarding nutrition. The Senate bill cuts $4 billion at a time when too many Americans are, in fact, food insecure; and food stamps, the SNAP program, plays a vital interest in communities around the country. The House bill is even worse: $16 billion in additional cuts that families rely upon and, frankly, that provide $1.70 of economic activity for each dollar that is given to beneficiaries. Well, there is one area that shouldn't be unduly controversial: the conservation title of the farm bill.…”