 A question or more over a commentary came from a member of the
audience regarding the new farm bill and the presentation by U.S.
Rep. Frank Lucas of the House Ag Committee.The speaker from the
audience began by saying he was disappointed to hear Lucas speak
negatively about freshmen congressmen.
He said to Lucas: "You were a freshman at one time, and I was
happy to see you there."
He said that in 1994 the freshmen in Congress got a lot
accomplished. He went on to say that the freshmen and sophomore
congressmen today are not the ones who created the deficit.
The speaker went on to address welfare and said that as a farmer
himself, he considered farm-direct payments from the government as
welfare.
He also said the American farmer could survive without these
payments, and if they couldn't stand the heat, they could get out of
the kitchen.
"What we need is freedom from the government," he told Schock.
He also noted: "Let some of them fail, like all the other
businesses in our country."
Schock finally responded: "So what is your question? I don't want
to cut you off, but if you have a question I'd be happy to answer
it."
The man in the audience said he understood there are fewer rural
congressmen, but that they couldn't fix the system when they have
people on one side of the aisle saying, "We want more food stamps,"
and people on the other side saying, "We want more direct payments."
Schock again asked him to pose a question, and the gentleman
replied that he wanted to know why the government couldn't get rid
of the welfare on both sides of the aisle.
Schock responded first by saying he thought it would be extremely
difficult to separate the food stamp portion from the ag portion of
the farm bill.
He also thought the rhetorical question would be: "Do you think
our country needs some type of food stamp program?"
Beyond the answer to that question, he said the natural political
reality of the situation is that the two are tied together because
they are consumption and production.
He understood that most don't see it that way because they look
at their own point of view. He said the food stamp people don't know
why they are with the farm bill, but there are also those who don't
know where their food comes from.
"I've had people tell me my food comes from the grocery store,"
he said.
Schock said what Lucas talked about with the problems in the food
stamp program is just a small part of it. However, he said that when
trying to initiate food stamp reform, "people look at you like you
are stealing food from starving babies."
On the other side of the question, doing away with direct
payments to farmers, Schock said he supported that.
He said getting rid of direct payments would be good policy and
that his farmers tell him that is what they want.
He said when he goes to Washington, though, and tells Lucas,
"'All my farmers want is crop insurance,' he says to me, 'What do
you think crop insurance is? That is a welfare program as well.'"
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Schock said that if he would bring in the independent agents who
represent crop insurance, they would tell you their companies could
not provide the insurance without the federal government backing it
up financially.
Schock said part of the problem is that everyone wants less
government except for their government.
"The nastiness of the sausage making is trying to get the leanest
sausage you can. If we're going to look at the food stamp program
and say we're going to help people who are poor and hungry, how do
we make sure the money is going to the poor and hungry. If we're
going to do a crop insurance program, how do we make sure there is
not a lot of fat in that crop insurance program and that it makes
the most sense for the producer and the insurers? And the same thing
with the direct payment program."
Schock said he would vote for a farm bill tomorrow that had no
direct payments in it. But there are others who would say they need
that funding and they need to be able to spend it in a way that will
help their constituents.
Schock said the beauty of his job is that if he could wait for a
perfect bill, he would never get to vote on a single bill.
"What we're trying to do is get the best possible accomplished,
and I think we're making progress, considering who is in the White
House and who controls the Senate, to get a bill out of committee --
a bipartisan vote that cut $16 billion from the food stamp program.
Because even the people on the far left can hardly argue against
people getting food stamps who are wealthy and have significant
assets. I think we're making progress. If I were a king instead of a
congressman, I could do what you want a lot quicker."
Schock concluded this portion of the discussions by addressing
the gentleman's remarks about freshmen congressmen.
"I agree that turnover is good," Schock continued. "What chairman
Lucas was suggesting was not that he doesn't like working with the
freshman and sophomores, but that it takes more time to get it done
when half of the committee was not there two years ago. You are now
educating a class of folks whom the majority of them don't come from
ag districts. So it is harder to pass the bill. But this bill that
passed with half of them new, and it passed with an overwhelming
margin."
The Q-and-A session with Schock lasted almost a full hour. In
future segments of this series, more of those questions and answers
will be included.
[By NILA SMITH]]
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