Date: 1985-10-08
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr.. Chairman. I do not want to get involved in any kind of debate or in any. other thing that would. incite the passions beyond the norm. but let me say that this is a very unusual. procedure. to say the least. and this is very serious business. The gentleman has just made a brilliant statement. with some inaccuracies. but nonetheless an impassioned plea. And yet if we are going to address the issue of the plight of the American farmer with an amendment that is not finished yet. what message are we sending them? I ask. what message are we sending them? Now let me continue. Mr. Chairman: Mention has been made about the bloated Federal budget. The farm support programs entail about 1 percent of the total budget for the past 5 years. 1 percent of the total budget. The issue. of interest. which has been of concern to the farmer. the high interest rates. came about because of deficits in the budget. but not made by the agricultural sector. We are but 1 percent of the total budget. So something else made the interest go astray. not the farm programs. That was very. disastrous. that was almost at the heart of the problem of agriculture. Then we started losing sales because of the value of the dollar. Nothing we do in agriculture involves the value of the dollar. There are a lot of other things: The deficit. selling securities by the Government. trust by investors and speculators that we are the country that would survive the most and where they would put their hard currency in. That sent the value of the dollar up. Embargoes. the farmers do not like embargoes. We do not like embargoes. Embargoes are bad. Yet President after President. goes off and imposes an embargo. Why are not we selling our crops abroad? Other -people are raising crops. subsidized by their governments beyond what we are able to match. Other countries are growing and selling crops that were not affected by embargoes. So what the gentleman from Arkansas has stated was a valid argument. but he is pointing the finger at the wrong people. He is pointing the finger at the wrong place. It does not lie with the American farmer. it does not lie with the farm bill. The farm programs. imperfect as they maybe. had nothing to do with raising. interest. rates. had nothing .to do with the bloated Federal deficit. had nothing to do with embargoes. they had nothing to do with anything he touched on. I want to correct the record as far as that is concerned. We have to send a message to the American farmer that we care. Saturday I was in Winne. TX. at their Rice Festival. A youhg man named Steve Fitzgerald told me: "Mr. Chairman. your being here means more to me. I know that someone cares. You work out the best program you can."And this we havetiledto do. But he said: "You work out the best program. But knowing that in Washington .there is someone or somebody who cares is imore important to me." And tlil is the message that we have to send out. not that we are trying to do something here with an amendment that is not finished. that we do not know what is in it. that wedo not know if points of order may be raised. The American farmer should not be treated that way.