[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 103 (Thursday, June 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S8850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HELP FOR THE FARMERS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, during the most recent recess, I had the 
privilege of meeting with 36 farmers, who make up an agriculture 
advisory board from across the State of Tennessee. We actually met in 
Knoxville, TN. The women and men on that board are real farmers, not 
just representatives of farmers, but people who personally earn their 
living on a farm.
  One gentleman, exhausted from the dawn-to-dusk pace of a farm in 
early summer, told my staff quite candidly that he simply would not 
have time to meet with a Senator unless it turned out to be a rainy 
day. That kind of humble feedback is in itself an important reason for 
us in the U.S. Senate, as elected representatives, to go home and talk 
to real people. Some members of this agriculture board from the western 
part of my State could not join me at that meeting because that very 
day they were struggling with the floodwaters that were destroying and 
threatening to destroy their crops. Nothing--nothing--could have served 
to make the need for Federal disaster relief more concrete and more 
real for me than the voice of a good man on the phone near panic over 
the rising waters.
  It was a fascinating day. When I had asked these 30 farmers to tell 
me what they would like their duly elected Senator to know today about 
agriculture, they were forthright and firm in their advice and their 
counsel. On two points they were very clear. Sam Worley of Hampshire, 
TN, said:

       We want a smaller Federal Government that thinks not short 
     term but long term.

  He went on and expressed that they wanted to be treated fairly in the 
spending reductions that they expect and that they know are necessary 
for the long-term health of this country for that next generation.
  These hard-working Tennesseans resent the media portraying them as 
parasites. They are willing to sacrifice, each and every one, as long 
as all Americans do, to balance the budget. They shuddered when I 
shared with them the fact that a child born today acquires an $18,000 
share in the Federal debt--a share of the Federal debt that they will 
be expected to pay the interest on over the course of a lifetime. They 
made it very clear to me that they are ready to do their part, as long 
as we do not try to balance the budget on the backs of the farmers.
  What else did these men and women have to tell me? They are 
frustrated with the perverse incentives of our welfare system. Mike 
Vaught of Lacassas, TN, told me of being unable to find an overseer to 
live on his farm because he could not provide the cable TV that was 
available in the public housing just miles away. They are frustrated 
with the intrusive Federal agencies that often act at cross purposes 
with each other. The Environmental Protection Agency orders action that 
the Soil Conservation Service prohibits. Jimmy Shellabarger of Jackson, 
TN, told me that he is frustrated by the huge fines for minor 
infractions of complicated rules. David Robinson of Jonesboro said,

       We are tired of being held to expensive standards of 
     production when our global competitors are allowed to ignore 
     these same standards.

  These farmers also asked for tax relief. This may surprise some of my 
colleagues across the aisle, but the tax relief that they asked me for, 
that they spoke about, was a cut in the capital gains tax rate. These 
are mainly middle-class Tennesseans. Some have experienced or been very 
close to bankruptcy, riding the roller coaster of commodity prices. But 
they fully understand what seems to elude so many of my colleagues, 
that a cut in the capital gains tax rate is critical to middle-income 
Americans; that it will stimulate the economy to the benefit of 
everyone in America.
  In closing, I want to tell you what James Wooden of South Pittsburg, 
TN, said. He said, ``I am going to talk to you just like we do under 
the shade tree.'' I will remember those words of James Wooden when the 
700-page farm bill, full of Washington lingo, comes by my way. We all 
need to go out under the shade tree and listen to the people across 
this country and let the people, firsthand, tell us what they know.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. DOLE. Will the Senator withhold?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the majority leader.

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