A Trillion Here, A Trillion There…
March 20, 2009 
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” ― Sen. Everitt Dirksen (R-IL).
“I don’t know what comes after a trillion ― they don’t teach that in Math 101 at the University of Georgia ― but whatever comes after a trillion dollars, we’re going to have to learn it because we are quickly approaching that,” ― Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Based on extensive research by The Dirksen Congressional Center’s paper and audio records, staffers could find no evidence whatsoever that Dirksen ever made the popular remark attributed to him. Why it was remains a mystery.
Chambliss is a graduate of the University of Georgia, and as to what he wondered: after a trillion dollars comes a quadrillion. $1,000,000,000,000,000.
“If you think the cost per acre of cotton is expensive, come on up to this Hill and we’ll show you how to grow pork,” Chambliss said on February 13. “The bills we have passed in the last two weeks, and the total of what we will pass in the next four to six weeks, will exceed $4 trillion.”
Less than 24 hours after Chambliss’s statement, President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package passed. The bill was 1,100 pages long ― over $7 billion per page. Chambliss, the Ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, voted against the measure.
“I think about the fact that we were scrapping and struggling and scrounging to get a few billion dollars to fund the (2007 Farm Bill) and catching all the criticism,” he said.
The 2007 Farm Bill was twice vetoed by President George Bush and twice overridden ― the last time with support of 82 out of 100 senators. “That tells you the importance of the farm bill all across America,” Chambliss said. “You don’t get 82 votes on motherhood and apple pie.”
Chambliss said he tells critics of farm programs that there is not a farmer in America who wants a check out of Washington. “But there are times when the ox gets in the ditch, so to speak, and we need that safety net,” he said. “Otherwise we’re going to have to depend on foreign imports for everything we buy at the grocery store and the (clothing) we try to put on our backs. We simply can’t afford for that to happen.”
The U.S.’s dependence on foreign oil is a perfect example.
As the farm bill was working its way through Congress, Chambliss and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) formed a bipartisan working relationship that they believe was beneficial to growers in all areas of the country. “They don’t grow a stalk of cotton in North Dakota, but (Conrad) was a huge supporter of the cotton program,” Chambliss said. “I didn’t know what pulse crops were. But I do now and I am a big supporter of pulse crops because that is important to him.”
Pulse crops are legumes like lentils, chickpeas and dry beans.
But although the 2007 Farm Bill was overwhelming passed, the fight continues. “It’s pretty clear to us exactly what we meant in that bill,” Chambliss said. “You look at it, you read it and you say you understand it. But unfortunately, there are a lot of bureaucrats in the Department of Agriculture who put their own interpretation into the language we wrote.”
On February 12, Chambliss and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), along with 18 other Cotton Belt Senators from both parties, sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting that the Department implement the rules and regulations pertaining to new Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and payment limit reforms that accurately reflect Congressional intent.
“If the Department of Agriculture doesn’t implement this farm bill exactly the way that those 82 folks intended, they are going to have fire and brimstone coming from Capitol Hill headed their way,” said Chambliss. “We think the payment limit provision speaks for itself. We are going to insist that it be implemented exactly as it reads.”
“If the Department of Agriculture doesn’t implement this farm bill exactly the way that those 82 folks intended, they are going to have fire and brimstone coming from Capitol Hill headed their way,” said Chambliss. “We think the payment limit provision speaks for itself. We are going to insist that it be implemented exactly as it reads
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