    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [July 30, 1999]
    [Page 1359]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Radio Remarks on Proposed Legislation To Help Farmers
    July 30, 1999

        As America's farmers look ahead to this year's harvest, what should
    be a time of reward and satisfaction is instead becoming a time of
    disappointment and for some, for too many, a time of ruin.
        From dropping crop prices to diminishing foreign markets to
    devastating droughts in some parts of the country, many of our farmers
    and ranchers are facing the worst crisis in a decade. My administration
    has done what we can to ease this crisis, from increasing our food
    purchases for humanitarian aid around the world, to speeding up farm
    program payments, to ensuring $6 billion in emergency aid last year to
    help farmers in need. To really help our farmers and ranchers, we have
    to fix the underlying problem.
        Let's just face it: The 1996 farm bill simply does not do enough to
    help our farmers and ranchers cope in hard times. It doesn't give me or
    the United States Department of Agriculture the tools we need to help
    farmers and ranchers thrive over the long term, from providing critical
    income assistance to farmers who need it most in bad years to making it
    easier for farmers to buy crop insurance and improving our crop
    insurance program to continuing our efforts to expand markets abroad and
    ensure fair practices here at home. That's the right way to help our
    farmers and ranchers over the long term.
        I am committed to working with Congress to provide the resources to
    help our farmers and ranchers by dealing with today's crisis and by
    fixing the farm bill for the future. We must do so in a way that
    maintains the fiscal discipline that has created our prosperity and that
    now makes it possible for us to save Social Security, to strengthen and
    modernize Medicare with a prescription drug benefit, and to pay off our
    national debt, guaranteeing our long-term financial prosperity. These
    things are good for America's farming and ranching families, too, and
    they're good for all Americans.

    Note: The President's remarks were recorded at approximately 10 p.m.
    aboard Air Force One at Aviano Air Base, Italy, for later broadcast. The
    transcript was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on July 31.
    These remarks were also made available on the White House Press Office
    Radio Actuality Line.