Bob Bennett

The picture I am getting is that the Federal Government is doing everything it can to sustain people in an uneconomic activity.

That point is very well taken.

The Russians used to be able to raise every bit as much wheat as they needed, and it rotted at the railhead because they did not have a distribution system.

We have not solved the war on hunger in this country, not because we do not have the production capability to do so.

What do you do with the money that comes from the licensing?

you know, I sit on the Banking Committee in my other life, and a 12- to 13-percent default rate would not be considered progress.

I would appreciate it if you would pay a little attention to the problem.

Sixty-four percent of the State is managed by the Federal Government.

I am not implying that it is not.

Approximately handed off, duly noted.

How can we make sure that the counties in this kind of a situation will be able to maintain safe drinking water?

Your budget proposes to reduce the Water and Waste Disposal Grant program by approximately $245 million.

the American farmer is the low-cost most efficient farmer in the world, and he is the one, she is the one increasingly, that will survive and do well if we can get rid of some of these barriers.

If we ever did allow rural America to shrivel up and blow away, we would pay a very significant price for that.

Making it impenetrable for the non-informed to have any idea as to what you are doing.

There is a need for vegetable oil and pulses to round out the ration that the Iraqi families have received.

Thank you for this. This has been very helpful.

We underestimate the importance of a distribution system.

the Federal payments would go down if these world markets were opened up, because as the most efficient producer in the world, the American farmer, regardless of size, can compete very well with any other farmer anyplace else.

There is a constant day-in and day-out sense of the overwhelming presence of the Federal Government.

people who live in rural areas are smarter than people who live in urban areas think they are

Thank you all. We appreciate this. I am particularly grateful to you for your willingness to participate in a dialogue aimed at trying to educate a new subcommittee chairman.

Finally, one of the most contentious issues that I have discovered since I assumed this position is country of origin labeling.

You are making an assumption about me from my questions, but you are probably right.

I think we have to try to balance how to help the developing countries, the rest of the world, to eat and stamp out hunger.