Mike Conaway: “We have got a clear-cut choice: you either want American producers to produce American food or you don't. That is what…”

“We have got a clear-cut choice: you either want American producers to produce American food or you don't. That is what this is simply about. When I think about the farm bill, you can love it or hate the safety net we have in place, but it works--as the chairman said, the lowest cost price food in the developed world. Here is why that is important. Half of America works paycheck to paycheck. Their food budget is where they flex. Their rent doesn't change. Their house payment doesn't change. Their car payment doesn't change. But if something comes up in the middle of the month, it is coming out of that food budget. I don't want to make that mom's job any tougher than it already is by raising the cost of food arbitrarily, capriciously, by ignoring the vast amount of competition around this world that is fundamentally unfair. If we could go to that utopia that my friend from California would like to get us to, fantastic, but we can't do that. They barely could do it in New Zealand, for goodness' sake. We could not do that against the rest of the world. I would argue that U.S. production is a bit more complicated than whatever New Zealand might or might not be doing. We have got to compete in a world global market against foreign treasuries that are spending stunningly more money than we are. China spent $100 billion on three products in 1 year to subsidize their products. Now, did that send the wrong signal to those folks? Yes, it did.…”