18th District Congressional Candidates: Farm Bill
By: Blake Long
Updated: November 2, 2012
In the race for the 18th Congressional
District seat, Republican incumbent Aaron Schock is facing Democrat Steve Waterworth. Our question: what's in the Farm Bill that will help Central Illinois farmers?
Aaron Schock:
"More than the direct payments which are often times viewed as welfare for farmers, if you will. I'm not a supporter of direct payments, I'm not a supporter of a lot of the farm subsidies we've had over the years, but I do think we need a robust safety net for people to be able to protect themselves to be able to buy affordable crop insurance so that if and when there is a downturn in the weather patterns like we've seen this year, they can protect their livelihood, their farm and their family business from bankruptcy, quite frankly. So, a robust crop insurance program which is in this latest version of the farm bill is something my constituents want and something I'm confident we'll get with the re authorization later this year."
Steve Waterworth:
" If food stamps go down and the price of food goes up, there's going to be even more hunger, especially for young kids. So, I think that's one of the problems. They're so, it's kind of the right wing or the tea party, what you want to call them, they're so concerned about food stamps, they lose sight of the parts of the farm bill that could really help farmers, particularly during this drought. So, there's dairy farmers that are really hurting in Missouri because they don't have feed for their cattle, they don't have water and yet this farm bill is being held up and of course they blame it on the democrats, and the democrats blame it on the republicans. Why can't they get to work?"
Aaron Schock:
"More than the direct payments which are often times viewed as welfare for farmers, if you will. I'm not a supporter of direct payments, I'm not a supporter of a lot of the farm subsidies we've had over the years, but I do think we need a robust safety net for people to be able to protect themselves to be able to buy affordable crop insurance so that if and when there is a downturn in the weather patterns like we've seen this year, they can protect their livelihood, their farm and their family business from bankruptcy, quite frankly. So, a robust crop insurance program which is in this latest version of the farm bill is something my constituents want and something I'm confident we'll get with the re authorization later this year."
Steve Waterworth:
" If food stamps go down and the price of food goes up, there's going to be even more hunger, especially for young kids. So, I think that's one of the problems. They're so, it's kind of the right wing or the tea party, what you want to call them, they're so concerned about food stamps, they lose sight of the parts of the farm bill that could really help farmers, particularly during this drought. So, there's dairy farmers that are really hurting in Missouri because they don't have feed for their cattle, they don't have water and yet this farm bill is being held up and of course they blame it on the democrats, and the democrats blame it on the republicans. Why can't they get to work?"
