CBS Evening News open - 1999-08-03

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Relief

[0:02] from the heat and drought as their crops

[0:05] wither in the sun. Farmers get promises

[0:07] of cool cash help from the government.

[0:10] Rodents, hotels, and other nightmares in

[0:13] paradise. A crackdown tonight on

[0:15] vacation scams. And Eye on America, a

[0:19] hot new fad that often comes to a deadly

[0:22] end.

[0:25] This is the CBS Evening News.

[0:29] with Dan Rather reporting from CBS News

[0:32] headquarters in New York.

[0:34] >> Good evening. First came the heat and

[0:36] drought. Now comes the flood of promises

[0:39] of disaster relief money from President

[0:41] Clinton to Congress to politicians at

[0:44] the grassroots. A bidding war of sorts

[0:46] is underway to come up with the most

[0:48] money. President Clinton announced $55

[0:50] million to help poor people pay for air

[0:53] conditioning. Congress is working up

[0:55] farm disaster relief in the billions.

[0:58] That's why CBS News White House

[1:00] correspondent John Roberts is also on

[1:02] the weather watch tonight.

[1:05] >> With 88 counties in the East already

[1:07] declared disaster areas and farmers in

[1:09] the Midwest going broke from a

[1:11] commodities glut, the Democrats today

[1:13] proposed an 11 billion bailout.

[1:15] >> The farm crisis is truly an emergency

[1:19] and calls for emergency measures.

[1:21] >> We've planted four different times.

[1:23] We've lost two of them and and the

[1:25] percentage we lost on the two is 75%.

[1:28] >> Jim Schillinger has seen hard times in

[1:30] the farm before, but not like this.

[1:33] >> Well, here's a watermelon right here.

[1:36] See right here? This is all from the

[1:37] drought stress.

[1:39] >> 115 acres of land he can't irrigate have

[1:41] become a wasteland of rotting produce

[1:44] and vanishing profits.

[1:45] >> We have lost over $30,000 this month of

[1:47] July. and the one-two punch of drought

[1:50] following two years of depressed prices

[1:52] brought on by the Asian market collapse

[1:54] are threatening to put farmers across

[1:56] the country out of business.

[1:58] >> There are thousands of very vulnerable

[2:01] small and medium-sized farmers even in

[2:03] this region of the country who probably

[2:06] cannot survive without some additional

[2:08] assistance.

[2:09] >> The ground hasn't been this consistently

[2:11] dry since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s

[2:13] when America was caught in the grip of a

[2:15] withering depression. The administration

[2:18] says with a robust economy and a huge

[2:20] surplus forecast, the government can

[2:22] afford to be generous with farmers. So

[2:25] the vice president today endorsed the

[2:27] Democratic plan, 4 billion more than the

[2:29] Republicans have offered and cautioned

[2:31] the GOP not to squander away the

[2:33] surplus. That bunch in control in there

[2:36] is trying to blow it all on a risky tax

[2:40] scheme while the whole farm sector of

[2:42] our economy is on the verge of absolute

[2:46] bankruptcy.

[2:47] >> Republicans have criticized the bailout

[2:49] package as just more loans that farmers

[2:51] will have to pay back. Jim Schillinger.