 Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, thank you, Dean Klechner, and thank you all, and welcome to the White House. On Monday, I met with the congressional leadership to discuss the drought that has afflicted so many thousands of acres of our farmland, and that's already touched so many Americans' lives. Tomorrow, I'll be flying out to Illinois and Iowa to see the effects of the drought for myself. But when I heard that you were going to be here, in Washington, I decided to take this day to meet with you, and you who are in so many ways the leaders of American agriculture. First, let me say our administration is committed to taking whatever actions are necessary to protect America's farmers from excessive losses during this drought. Already, we've taken a number of actions. We formed an interagency drought policy committee to coordinate federal action. The Army Corps of Engineers is working hard to keep traffic moving on the Mississippi River and elsewhere in spite of some of the lowest water levels in history, and in order to help livestock owners, Secretary Ling has permitted grazing on set-aside lands. But needless to say, much more, much more needs to be done. And now is the time to start work on legislation to help the many crop farmers who will suffer substantial losses. At my direction, Secretary Ling has been working closely with the leadership of the House and Senate agricultural committees in an effort to draft timely legislation. We've sought to make this a bipartisan effort, and so far I'm pleased by the cooperation that we've received. Permit me to outline the five points we're seeking in this drought legislation. First, relief should go to those who need it most, creating windfalls for some will mean less for the truly deserving. Second, many of our farmers purchased federal crop insurance, a sound business decision. They should not be penalized relative to farmers who did not act with such prudence. Third, this legislation should not force farmers to do unreasonable things. No program should, for example, include any incentive for a farmer to plow under his crops. Fourth, drought relief spending has to be considered in the context of our efforts to reduce the federal deficit, and according to the November 1987 bipartisan budget agreement that we reached with Congress. To put it very simply, we mustn't bust the budget. The automatic budget sequestration cuts that overspending triggers would take back from farmers with one hand what we're providing in drug relief with the other. And finally, this humanitarian assistance should not be used as a means to other ends. Extraneous matters such as rewriting the existing farm bill will only deter our efforts to provide this much-nated aid. Now permit me to tell you just where our efforts stand. Yesterday, after long consultations with Secretary Ling, bipartisan legislation that meets these goals was introduced in both the House and Senate. Secretary Ling will continue to work with the House and Senate Agriculture Committees as they mark up the drought relief package to ensure that this bipartisan, bicameral cooperation continues. And yet even as the drought continues, we would do well to look beyond it to the long-range future of American agriculture. We all know that American farmers are more than competitive in world markets. If only those world markets give our farmers the chance to compete fairly. And this is why under Secretary Ling and Ambassador Clayton Yider's guidance, we're working to increase our agricultural exports by making world trade freer and much more fair. Last July, we presented at the Uruguay Round in Geneva a proposal that I described as, by the way, that's one of the best parts of this job is that from time to time, you get to quote yourself. But I described our proposal as the most ambitious proposal for world agricultural trade ever offered. Our proposal calls for nothing less than a total phase out by the year 2000 of all policies that distort trade in agriculture. This proposal reflects one of my abiding beliefs, and I think it's a belief that you share. The solution to the world agricultural problem is to get government out of the way and let farmers compete. It's true, of course, that getting rid of all export subsidies, import barriers and the like, all the things that make it harder for our farmers to compete in world markets is a very tall order. But we're not backing down. At the Economic Summit in Toronto last month, we were able to persuade the heads of state that at the Montreal midterm review meeting, their trade ministers must reach agreement on a goal and a timetable for completing the Uruguay round. And I can tell you, after nearly eight years of working with these heads of state, setting a deadline, a time when the talking has to stop and the action has to begin, is a very powerful instrument for getting things done. I know that you support our agricultural proposal for freer and fairer world markets, and I thank you for that support. Just as I give you my heartfelt thanks for your support on a host of other things, including the textile bill and the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement. And I ask you to continue to work to help the farmers who are suffering as a result of this drought. The productivity of American agriculture is one of the great success stories of our time, indeed of all time. As recently as 1940, a single American farmer could feed 19 people for a year. Today, a single American farmer feeds about 120 people for a year, and American products are shipped around the world. Through all these decades, despite drought and misfortune, the American farmer has continued to succeed. We'll get over this drought, and yes, we'll succeed in making world markets fairer and more open, and the American farmer will continue to go from strength to strength. You know, tomorrow, when I meet with a group of those farmers right out there in the heart of the drought, I'm thinking, you know, it never is very, very successful in saying, did you ever hear the funny thing I said? So I don't usually repeat those, but I'm going to repeat one that I said some years ago. I wasn't in this job at the time, but I was out on the mashed potato circuit, and I had been invited to address the Farm Bureau Convention in Las Vegas, and on the way into the hall where the convention was taking place, one of those sharpers that inhabits Las Vegas for the gambling recognized me and said, what are you doing here? And I told him I was going in to address the Farm Bureau, and he said, what are a bunch of farmers doing in Las Vegas? And I couldn't resist. I said, Buster, they're in a business that makes a Las Vegas crap table look like a guaranteed annual income. I don't tell anyone I did this year today because I may want to do it tomorrow. But thank you again for coming here today, and God bless you. Thank you, Mr. President. We appreciate the invitation to come here today and visit with you. These are our state Farm Bureau presidents that are in for a yearly council presidents meeting, and it happened to be in the middle of the drought. The drought, as you indicated, is very serious, affecting parts or all of the states, most serious in probably 30 states, which makes it the worst in my memory and the worst in many people's memories. Secretary Ling visited with us the other day, and we've been most appreciative of the Department of Agriculture, of the secretary, and is working with the distressed farmers. And that's many in this room that are not getting a crop, maybe in some cases not any or in some cases only a partial crop. I, too, have been extremely pleased with the bipartisanship that's been expressed. Senator Leahy and Chairman De La Garza, along with the ranking members Luger and Madigan, we visited with them, and it's been, it's really been great to see everybody working together. This isn't a partisan drought. It didn't, Ronald Reagan nor Chairman De La Garza or Leahy didn't cause, not to rain. It just didn't rain and were all being affected. You commented also on the Uruguay round and Secretary Ling did ask me to go to point to De Lesta as it kicked off down there. And you did present a bold, imaginative proposal that the world would be better off if and when that's accepted. And I think most farmers know that and know that we're not, we're saying we're not gonna do it unilaterally. The world has to come to that. The other areas that you talked about, we have concurrence. I met last night, I remember the National Economic Commission and the budget issue and the tax issue is right out there now and you're on target with lowering of the taxes and holding the spending and I keep remembering your second term is ending, but you're our president for six and a half more months or thereabouts. And just keep up the good work of keeping on keeping on with what you've been doing, Mr. President. That's exactly what it is. Mr. President, I made it bigger. Now I don't know the size of your and my heads, but I made them both bigger. This is the new Farm Bureau logo, it's FB, and I'm gonna put mine on right now. I don't know if that will encourage you to do the same or not, but. I am too, but I had to shorten it up because I'm a pinhead. I'm not gonna open this because I've heard it's bad luck to open an umbrella in the house. I don't know about that, but. My brain. If it did that, we'd open it up, but you're going out to Illinois tomorrow and Iowa and I've been invited to accompany you. They've been getting a little rain in Illinois and in my state of Iowa and your former working state of Iowa. And I don't kid about umbrellas, but there's been, there's an awful lot of prayers and faith involved out in the Midwest and the country right now in regard to the drought and the rain. I know there's been a little rain in the decoy area and that part of Illinois you're going from a little bit to maybe up to several inches and probably some areas with none. Let's hope tomorrow that you will have need to use that umbrella in Illinois and in Iowa. Just as I'm leaving. Just as I'm leaving. Just as I'm leaving. Just as I'm leaving. Just as I'm leaving. Thank you very much. I just had a frightening little mention in one of the publications this morning at breakfast that I read that they're now predicting possibly that we will have a repeat of the Dust Bowl of the 30s and having experienced something very unusual during that Dust Bowl. I really, I got shivers because I was a sports announcer. I was broadcasting big league baseball in Chicago Cubs, namely. And remember then the Dust Bowl was from clear out in the West. Oklahoma and so forth, not the Midwest at all. And believe it or not, those clouds that would start rising up and coming and starting over, I was broadcasting a Cub game that had to be called at about the fifth inning because of the Dust one all the way from Oklahoma. Into Chicago. Yeah. Came into Chicago. You can see that. Couldn't see the outfield pass. Well, so that scared me a little bit. So if you've got any ideas of what to do, in spite of the drop that we can't correct right now, but to hold down the Dust later. Let's plan that. There's a lot of changes in conservation in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, that area. And those, those presidents are here sitting out in the audience today from those states where that Dust Bowl, I suppose we could have a Dust Bowl again, but I think much more unlikely today that we would have it. It may actually be drier in my home state of Iowa and your temporary state of Iowa this year. The first six months was drier than the first six months of 1934. Less rain this year. And yet Merlin Plagey, the president of Iowa is here and there's going to be some crop in the state this year. As there will be in most states, there will be something. And farmers, I think the good Lord has got something to do and will have something to do with what we have. Well, when you're talking to him, you get a busy signal. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to be happy. I'm trying to be happy. You bet I am. Do you think it'd be fun? Well, if it has, it failed right in Monaco where the sand in the east is our center. And we've just received our ambassador back with some horrifying stories that don't seem to get as wide a circulation as they should have been. Are you going to ask for military aid in that package? Trying to consider how I'm going to answer that or not if that is much giving something away while you're still negotiating. Go ahead.