March 21, 1978
Page 7772
Mr. TALMADGE. Mr. President, before we vote on the Dole amendment, Senator MUSKIE has requested that I ask unanimous consent that both he and the distinguished Senator from Kansas have 2 minutes to summarize the arguments for and against the amendment. There are a substantial number of Senators on the floor now. Unfortunately, during most of the day there had not been this good an attendance.
So. I ask unanimous consent that Senator MUSKIE have 2 minutes, and Senator DOLE have 2 minutes, to conclude the argument, and then Senator MUSKIE, I am sure, wants a yea and nay vote on the Dole amendment, and I ask that the yeas and nays be ordered at this time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas and nays have been ordered.
Without objection, the Senator from Maine is recognized.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, it is impossible to summarize all of the arguments in 2 minutes, but I would at least like to provide to my colleagues information bearing upon the inflationary impact and the possible risk of a shortage in production, given the present state of carryout stocks.
Mr. TALMADGE. May we have order, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will be in order.
Mr. MUSKIE. I made the point earlier that because of the way in which these amendments have been brought to the floor the Budget Committee simply does not have the information on the budget impact, the inflation impact, and the supply impact of this combination of policies.
On the McGovern amendment, the Talmadge bill, and the Dole amendment, we simply do not have it, and I think it is most unfortunate and regrettable because if there is anything the budget
process is supposed to do it is to give us the information necessary for us to vote intelligently, and we do not have that information.
With respect to the inflation impact, the carryover impact of this combination of bills, I do now have tentative information from the Congressional Budget Office. On the inflation side what this will do is add 1 full percentage point to the rate of inflation. It will mean that the cost to the consumer of food bills will be increased by $7 to $12 billion. For a family of four that translates into an additional cost of feeding a family of four of $130 to $220.
With respect to the risk of a shortage in production, in 1972 our wheat carryover was 1 billion bushels. It was not sufficient to carry us through the next 2 bad crop years, which led to the roller coaster of higher and higher feed prices that undercut the situation of the meat producer, and that eventually led to low prices that have undercut the wheat and feed grain farmer. That 1 bushel carryover in 1972 would be reduced as a result of this bill to 600 million bushels, less than in 1972.
With respect to feed grains, we had a 2.1 billion bushel carryover, which would be reduced to 300 million bushels. Those are two of the risks associated with this amendment.
Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I appreciate the concern of the distinguished Senator from Maine.
Just let the Senator from Kansas point out that we took the CBO figures when they said the Dole amendment would cost $1.8 billion, and all we did was to use today's prices, not the prices 6 months from now but today's prices, and on that basis reduced the cost over $1 billion.
They are using prices that are lower than today's market prices in trying to figure the estimate.
In addition, we have taken out the Public Law 480 proposal, which reduces the cost another $375 million.
So I suggest the total cost, just based on today's prices not on the prices that are going to be up higher and higher because of the set aside, is around $600 million some. I suggest the cost will be nothing to the American taxpayer.
I do not know that we have ever run out of wheat in this country, but it is the same old story we hear about that we ought to have low farm prices. Well, the American farmer cannot produce anymore at present farm prices. He is producing now at less than the cost of his production.
We have plenty of wheat. We will have plenty of wheat, plenty of corn, and plenty of feed grains under this proposal or any combination of these proposals.
I just suggest it is time to act for the American farmer. It seems to me we would be doing it in a responsible way, and I would hope that the Members of the Senate would approve the amendment, the flexible parity amendment.
SEVERAL SENATORS. Vote!