Herb Kohl: “I rise in opposition to the dairy compacts that exist and are being proposed, and it is for very good reason. We have…”

“I rise in opposition to the dairy compacts that exist and are being proposed, and it is for very good reason. We have never had price-fixing arrangements in the history of our national economy. When the Articles of Confederation were proposed, they understood we needed a national unified economy, and the beauty of our economy today, which makes it the envy of every country in the world, is that in the United States of America, since we started, every product and every service has unimpeded access in all 50 States. That promotes competition, that promotes excellence in quality, and that promotes the best prices for our consumers. What they are proposing right now is that we invalidate that concept and we start going down the road of price-fixing cartels, arrangements that will allow for no competition pricewise and, as a result, for access basically from one market to another in the case of milk. Once we start doing that, then we have to recognize that other commodities and other products will come to the Senate asking for the same consideration. If we allow that for milk, then we certainly have to recognize that other commodities and other products have the right to make the same arguments. What will happen 10 years from now or 20 years from now when we balkanize the American economy by virtue of price arrangements between States based on commodities that they share? We will have an economy in which the consumer will pay.…”