WASHINGTON, DC -- "If the Republicans hadn't approved these new tax cuts, we wouldn't need these cuts to agriculture," said Congressman Collin C. Peterson (DFL-7th District) today in response to the proposed $9 billion cuts in farm programs over five years in the House Republican budget.
A hearing on the 1995 Farm Bill on Thursday featured Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, who along with President Clinton, is proposing $1.5 billion in spending reductions for the coming year. The budget that has been approved by the House Budget committee cuts farm programs by a total of $17 billion by 2002.
"I would like to support tax cuts but I voted against them because I knew this would happen," Peterson said. "The programs that really matter are going to end up getting hurt because the money has to come from somewhere. Farm programs have already been cut 60 percent over the past decade and the programs can't take a lot of additional cuts if we want the industry to survive.
"One good sign is even some Republicans want less cuts than those approved by the Budget committee," Peterson continued. "I'm hoping the final amount of spending reductions will be somewhere in between the proposals by the Administration and the Republicans."
As co-chair for policy of The Coalition, Peterson is helping to draft a budget alternative which restores nearly two-thirds of the agriculture cuts. The Coalition budget does not require such deep cuts in agriculture because it does not include the revenue lost from the GOP tax cuts.