washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/26/lawmakers-hit-obama-proposal-to-cut-farm-aid -> washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/26/lawmakers-hit-obama-proposal-to-cut-farm-aid/
President Obama's plan to cut farm subsidies, dealing a blow to one of the cost-savings promises he laid out in his congressional address Tuesday night. "We'll have to see what specifically the president is talking about, but we just finished the farm bill last year, and I don't think we'll open it up," said Rep. Collin C Peterson, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Likewise, the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said the farm bill, which lasts for five years, "should not be changed midstream." "I believe it is premature to make any sweeping changes to the makeup of the farm safety net before we have even had the chance to implement the current farm bill," said Sen. The pushback came a day after Mr Obama called for cutting subsidies to farm businesses in his address to Congress, one of a few examples of how he can save $2 trillion from the federal budget over 10 years, and as other Democratic leaders took issue with what they see as White House moves into their domain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in no uncertain terms defended the right of lawmakers to direct federal dollars, or earmarks, to their districts despite the efforts by Mr Obama to curb the time-honored practice as he puts the finishing touches on his first fiscal budget to be released Thursday. "Since we've been a country, we have had the obligation, as a Congress, to help direct spending. We cannot let spending be done by a bunch of nameless, faceless bureaucrats buried in this town someplace, to take care the needs of the state of Nevada, Washington and New York." Mr Reid acknowledged that the earmark process had been "abused" in recent years. House and Senate Democrats say that the number of such special requests will be lower in the new budget and that the projects and the members requesting the earmark will be fully disclosed. Robert C Byrd of West Virginia, president pro tem of the Senate, blasted Mr Obama for stepping beyond his constitutional boundaries in naming so many "czars" to oversee policy. The senator said czars circumvent the usual Cabinet officials who have to go through Senate confirmation and answer to Congress as well as the president.
dick Harry and the gang were wildly applauding and jumping up and down when BO gave his speech, but when his policies begin to hit home, well that's another story.
doublehook The 'pork' needs to be completely cut out in hard times. This is what our citizenry must do in their budgets, why not our government? Every congress person that votes an affirmative to an earmark should be removed from office!
sikologik This spending bill is a huge opportunity for Obama to define himself in his presidency. If he is for real, he will push back on the pork, using to power of the veto if necessary. Failure to stop the pork now will have dire consequences for him going forward. Barack Obama may not have been put in the Oval Office by the federal lobbying branch, but all of congress sure was, and what we're seeing now is congress pushing back on Obama's attempts to stop the lobby in its tracks.
bob C suesc: No I don't know any farmers with $300,000 rugs, but I bet there are a few agribusiness executives that do. Which is the point: We are not subsidizing good sustainable farms and rural economies - we are subsidizing agribusiness. This has everything to do with the health (in all senses of the word) of our communities.
bob C These agribusiness/food monopoly subsides are destroying rural America - take a drive through Kansas or Nebraska - total monocultural wastelands. These monopolies are mining the soil and local populations and giving little back. There is not one single serious thinker on rural development that thinks that the Farm Bill was a good thing for rural America. The reason that it's law is obvious - large, monied interests have corrupted our congress.
Jaeger "We are a separate branch of government," Mr Reid said. "Since we've been a country, we have had the obligation, as a Congress, to help direct spending." Reid, your budgetary responsibilities are not just "directing spending" (aka pork barrel spending) --- you've got a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that America stays fiscally solvent, something that you and Speaker Pelosi care nothing about. In 2006, both you and Pelosi claimed that you were going to do something about this, but this was all just a campaign sham to get your party in the majority. Now that you are in charge, the intoxication of power has led your party to throw all caution, restraint, and resource management completely out the window.
Thunder_Rolls Rated 3/5 I like cedarhill do wonder though if he will ever stand up to Reid and Pelosi. His speech on not wanting bigger Gov't was sure a crock. Can any elected official get their head out of the trough and do what is right for taxpayers?
Thunder_Rolls Rated 3/5 I hate to admit I agree with Obama on this one as well as his stand on teachers. There are much better plants for producing ethanol, such as switchgrass, sorghum, and sugar cane. Genetically altered yeast will aid in making other plants much more efficient than corn for producing ethanol. Corn needs to go to feeding people and animals, not for producing ethanol!
Obama just squeals but will sign whatever Pelosi and Reid give him. Mark you calendar for the Obama "reluctantly signing" reports while promising "more work on this" in future budgets. Pork is pork and votes are votes and neither will interfere with Obama's sense of fiscal responsibility. And, obtw, Obama should be called BS Obama, given he is such a master of manure.
Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story? Harry Reid (D-NV) has acknowledged that the earmark process had been "abused" in recent years. Harry Reid (D-NV) has acknowledged that the earmark process had been "abused" in recent years.
Slumdog Millionare Sweeps View Is there a disconnect between the White House and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents regarding immigration policies?
James Piereson's 2007 book "Camelot and the Cultural Revolution" featured an intriguing look at the liberal slide from progressive patriotism into anti-imperialist self-loathing during the 1960s and beyond in the wake of JohnF. It's a text to keep in mind as you watch the new DC-based romantic thriller "An American Affair."
In his address to Congress, President Obama introduced us to one of his wife's guests, Ty'Sheoma Bethea, a student from JV Martin Junior High Schoolin Dillon, SC He presented her as a plucky girl from a hopeless school who took it on herself to write the president and Congress asking for much needed help.
The old saying that money isn't everything seems to epitomize President Obama's inept attempts to jump-start the economy by throwing two to three trillion dollars at it.
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