David Obey: “Let me simply say, as an upper Midwesterner, I think both parties have done a rotten job of dealing with the problems of…”

“Let me simply say, as an upper Midwesterner, I think both parties have done a rotten job of dealing with the problems of farmers, certainly dairy farmers in the upper Midwest. I think the existing dairy law has been a joke. I have not voted for farm bills in almost 10 years because they are wildly discriminatory against the region that I represent. I hope that the new dairy agreement, which has been announced by the Subcommittee on Agriculture, will improve the situation. I remain ready to be convinced and persuaded. I am convinced that the only way we can get a decent dairy program in this country is if we have a radical reform of the milk marketing order system which plagues this country and should have been abolished a long time ago. The failure of the Congress to correct that problem is a failure of the Committee on Agriculture; it is not a failure of the gentleman from Louisiana or anyone else on the Committee on Appropriations, because we do not have the authority to deal with that.”