Yesterday, 20th Congressional District Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand appeared on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio to discuss several important issues with well-known local political commentator Alan Chartock. In the conversation, Gillibrand talks about her plans for agriculture, eduction, the economy, as well as the War in Iraq.

Gillibrand on the farm bill:

"This farm bill, in my opinion, is the best farm bill we've ever had in the history of America and it's the most reform-minded. It was a farm bill that took extraordinary amounts of effort to really put Ag policy in a new direction, and what we did is we really wanted to limit the amount of money that went to the commodities because we all heard the stories of these millionaire farmers who were getting our taxpayer subsidies."

"We wanted to make sure that when we're helping farmers we're helping small farmers and farmers that need our help because the goal is to make sure we have a vibrant agricultural economy across the nation."

Gillibrand on fiscal discipline:

"What this Congress really believes in is that middle class tax cuts is always going to be a priority. Healthcare for kids, healthcare for seniors are our priorities."

"The amount of loopholes that benefit overseas companies, not even American companies is unbelievable, so (Congress is) making choices and they're saying we're going to start having more fiscal dicipline, we're going to know every penny that we spend, we're going to make sure that we purposely spend it, we're not going to let loopholes dictate policy, we're not going to let poor policy undermine good policy and so they're going to do it by really tightening the belt to making sure we have fiscal discipline. For instance, we've cut earmarks in half."

"What we saw in the last Congress was an abuse of this. We saw a powerful Congressman put in a two million dollar bridge to an island with no habitants in Alaska. That's not a spending priority for anybody, and if you're going to have a choice between childrens healthcare and a bridge to nowhere, I'm going to chose the childrens healthcare every time."