Once Again, Bush Slows Farm Bill Progress

Does President Bush want a Farm Bill? We wish we knew.

What we do know is that "compromise" is an important skill, and we applaud Senate AG Chair Tom Harkin, House Ag Chair Collin Peterson and the conference committee members as a whole for their hard work in finding the compromises that allowed last night's committee session to come to agreement. Meanwhile, President Bush is once again dragging his feet, with both his senior appointees -- USDA Secretary Schafer and Deputy Secretary Conner having admitted to Peterson that they have no authority to negotiate alterations to administration demands.

And the Bush demands seem to be centered on contrariness -- his way or the highway -- with his "required" changes designed specifically to hold up what has already been a hard process.

Next step is for Senate Ranking Member Saxby Chamblis to go to the White House with a message centering on, "We've got a Farm Bill you can sign."

When Chambliss comes back, we'll learned whether Bush understands that this is a democracy -- not a dictatorship, and even the President must take a turn at compromise.

Farm Bill Agreement Today? -- Tuesday, 2:30 PM EST

Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin has called together the conference committee for a 2:30 PM EST meeting today. His goal -- to smooth our final details on the Farm Bill so that the Bill can be voted on by House and Senate, and forwarded to the President for signature. It's been a long path, but compromise includes additional funding for nutrition, energy and conservation, as well as some cuts to farm subsidies and a reduction in the size of the new disaster relief fund. Overall, this is good news.

Still worrisome is what the President will do. He, of course, is trying to be relevant and may be sticking to his long time commitment to reduce all kinds of government funding for rural programs. You will remember that Agriculture and Transportation are the two most important programs for both rural communities and small business, but beginning when the President first came to office, it has been Agriculture and Transportation that have always received the biggest cuts in Bush Budgets.

In his Rose Garden press conference this AM, the President warned Congress that he wants more changes, and yesterday, Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte made similar noises. In a related statement, last Thursday Chairman Collin Peterson said that if the president vetoes the bill, he should be ready to implement permanent farm law.

We need to remember that strong Farm Bill legislation is key to rural America's economic well-being. One consistent question asked by some national reporters, is "why subsidies" and/or "why" other rural community and farm protections at a time when prices are strong. The answer to that question lies in the hard truth that prices go up and prices go down. If the protections aren't already in place when the prices go down, it will be too late to put then back retroactively.

"The Wage That Meant Middle Class"

We reported on this story earlier this week, but it's so important that we've chosen to give it extra emphasis here. Recently, we wrote about our economy (our very fragile economy) and how a few weeks ago, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats responded by passing the Economic Stimulus Package which will result in a tax rebate for ailing middle class voters ($1200 per joint filing, $600 per single).

"The Wage That Meant Middle Class" was $20 an hour, introduced on a large scale in the middle of the last century. As reported by author Louis Uchitelle,

"The Trend in the Hourly work force is striking. Take only the peak years in each business cycle, starting in 1979. The proportion earning at last $20 an hour declined from 23 percent that year, to 20 percent in 1980, to 18 percent in 1989, and to 16 percent in 2000. Manufacturing was hit the hardest."

Quite simply, the votes of rural citizens will make the difference in the upcoming November 2008 elections. You can find more details of just how endangered our middle class has become by clicking here. Meanwhile, if you're worrying about whether your vote might actually make the difference, there's a great election map site at 270toWin.com/ Click on an individual state and you'll also find how only a percent or two can change results ... and that's why every vote really must be counted this year.

US Energy Secretary Bodman on Biofuels

The Wall Street Journal has reported in its "Environmental Capital" section that Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is cautiously balancing his position about biofuels, saying, “the bottom line is this: concerns about the sustainability and environmental impact of biofuels are not misplaced, but they are absolutely not a reason to ignore the tremendous promise of biofuels. They are an argument for developing them in a way that makes sense for our environment, for our food supply, for our agricultural community and for our nation’s economic health.”

Of course, the challenge is how to balance world food needs and world food prices with the huge possibility of the U.S. becoming energy independent. Read the whole story at "Bodman on Biofuels: They’re ‘Critical’ to Energy Security".

Plain Language for Government -- We've been waiting for this!

This is good news: The U.S. House passed Representative Bruce Braley's bill -- H.R. 3548, the Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2007, on the day before Tax Day -- April 15. Click here to see examples of how this bill would make government writing easier to understand.

So first, kudos!! to Mr. Braley (D IA-4). The bill's passage in the House is a welcome step forward for those of us who hate filling out government forms, often all too full of "gobbledygook". Assuming the bill is signed into law, the Plain Language in Government Communications Act will require the federal government to write new publications, forms, and publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner that follows the best practices of plain language writing.

Braley hopes that his bill will make it, "... Easier for Americans and small businesses to work with and understand their government. "

At My Rural America, we hope the IRS will lead the way in simplifying its forms first and then, some day, we hope that the health insurance companies will be required to follow suit. We also laughed when we read that Mr. Braley had said he, "Hoped in some small way, the bill (would) honor the memory of our former colleague, Maury Maverick, Sr., who served two terms in the House from 1935-1939." It turns out that Congressman Maverick invented the term “gobbledygook” to describe bureaucratic language that was as difficult to understand as the call of wild turkeys from his native South Texas.