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ARE YOU SURPRISED ?

SURPRISED THAT THE FARM BILL MAY BE EXTENDED

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HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Farm bill could be postponed until 2009




Associated Press - November 15, 2007 3:03 PM ET

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - A new farm bill may be delayed in the Senate until after the 2008 elections.

Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, says the current law may be extended for a year if Democrats fail tomorrow in an attempt to end debate over the bill.

The measure has been stalled for more than a week as Republicans and Democrats bicker over how many amendments will be offered.

The Bush administration has threatened to veto the $286 billion measure, saying it's too expensive and would pay too much money to farmers who are already well off.

A number of House Republicans from farm states say they will support an extension so that farmers and ranchers can plan and plant next year's crops.

The House Agriculture Committee chairman, Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson, says talk of an extension is premature.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
To some extent I am surprised-- as non passage is going to not go over very well with many rural voters- as it again shows a Congress that cannot get anything done...

From what I read some Republican Senators and Bush are trying to stall it as a way of killing some parts--but from what I've been told many of the Democrats think this plays into their hands by getting more votes by blaming Repubs for the stall and veto threats- and the fact that its pretty probable that after 08 the Dems will have the White House and much more power in Congress to push it thru whichever way they want...

So it looks like again-- it is embroiled in politics, rather than common sense..
 

Silver

Well-known member
286 billion??!!?!!? I gues it doesn't sound like alot if you say it really really fast. And to think we get tagged with the 'socialist' label.... :wink:
 

hillsdown

Well-known member
I am kind of wondering where that 286 billion would come from?
There are only so many dollars one can pay into taxes, and it was released last week that the war in Iraq has cost a US family of 4 $20,000.
How much more can people pay into the system?

Not being judgemental just wondering aloud.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
hillsdown said:
I am kind of wondering where that 286 billion would come from?
There are only so many dollars one can pay into taxes, and it was released last week that the war in Iraq has cost a US family of 4 $20,000.
How much more can people pay into the system?

Not being judgemental just wondering aloud.

One of the things many don't reallize is that half the farm bill is made up of urban welfare, aid for low income, minority, foreign aid, and housing funds-like Food Stamps, and aid to teach folks in Timbuktu how to raise purple camels----that are stuck in the Farm Bill to make it not sound as bad- but makes it sound worse for the farm/ranch industry....
 

Tex

Well-known member
Pennies

For every $100 paid in federal taxes in 2006, just 3 cents went to farm bill programs.
Source: Congressional Budget Office, American Farm Bureau Federation

2007 Farm Bill pie chart

“The purpose of the farm bill continues to serve farmer and consumer needs by maintaining a secure, safe, healthy, affordable and abundant food supply in this country. The farm bill is increasingly focusing on renewable energy, nutrition and is one of the largest pieces of continually renewed conservation legislation.”
~ Adam Sharp, Ohio Farm Bureau
senior director of national and regulatory affairs

According to USDA projections for 2007, more than 85 percent of farm household income is expected to come from off the farm jobs. That means on average, the individual farmer will make about $11,500 from farming.



For a real pie chart go here:

http://ourohio.org/index.php?page=america-s-meal-ticket
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
TORONTO - About $600 million in federal assistance will start reaching hard-pressed livestock producers and other farmers by mid-January as they struggle with the effects of a strong dollar and high feed prices, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Saturday.

About one third of the cash - part of the agricultural stability program - should go directly to livestock producers still struggling to recover from the BSE crisis in 2003 that saw the U.S. border temporarily closed to Canadian cattle and beef products.

"That's a significant amount of money moving out of Ottawa right into farmers' mailboxes," an upbeat Ritz said after meeting his provincial counterparts.

Ritz offered no comfort in terms of the high dollar, which has been at record levels against its American counterpart, saying there's nothing the federal government can do about what is an internationally traded commodity.

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said little can be done about the high price of feed.

"What the industry has to do is adjust to those prices," Wowchuk said. "If it's not economical to produce at those prices, then different decisions have to be made, but those are decisions producers have to make."

One of the main difficulties in providing government assistance to producers is the risk of incurring challenges under trade agreements and sparking retaliatory import duties, particularly from United States.

As a result, money is flowing through existing programs that have been criticized by farmers for being cumbersome.

"We want to be very careful . . . that whatever action we take is not going to cause or create some kind of trade challenge," said Ontario's Leona Dombrowksy.

Ministers said they had made progress toward developing an overall support system amid provincial demands for more say in the design of the new programs and who pays for which parts of them.

Dombrowsky said talks about "flexibility" were encouraging and the ministers had "moved yardsticks forward" in terms of developing a new agricultural policy framework although specifics had yet to be worked out.

In cases of localized natural disasters, the ministers did agree that 60 per cent of relief money would come from Ottawa and 40 per cent from the provinces - an issue that has been a sticking point for several provinces.

Response to disasters that are more national in scope would still require federal-provincial negotiations over funding shares.

Ritz was decidedly upbeat about the talks, which ended early on a positive note.

"We've got agreement on moving forward with the next five-year suite of programs for agricultural producers," said Ritz. "It's a tremendous victory for Canadian farmers."

Also, Ritz said delays in getting processible meats, poultry and pasteurized eggs to market in the U.S., caused by new stepped-up testing at the border, had ended Saturday.

"There's no hold now on the product; they can move right through," he said. "That's a significant change in the first week of this new testing regime."
 
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