Burgess Owens: “I do not know whether the gentleman here comes from a farm State or not, but the people in my district want to know how…”

“I do not know whether the gentleman here comes from a farm State or not, but the people in my district want to know how you have a situation where farmers' home loan mortgages are forgiven. Over a 5-year period, the Department of Agriculture forgave $11 billion; $11 billion were forgiven in farmers' home loan mortgages. They want to know how our Government does such things, and then worries about people who do not have $25. I met a lady just last Monday, I have known her for a long time, I did not know she was in such hard times, 85 years old she is. She has always been a tenacious entrepreneur all her life. She has never worked for anybody else. She does not have Social Security. She once owned a home, she lost it. She once had two children, they are dead now. Eighty-five years old. She has no income. Zero income. When we say 30 percent of your income, the Brooke amendment we fought for, 30 percent, 30 percent of nothing is nothing, of course. But most of us, nobody in this Congress pays 30 percent of their income for rent. Nobody pays 30 percent of their income for rent. That is enough of a standard that is imposed on the poor that nobody else has to live up to.”