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Taking a mileYou know the saying, "give them an inch, and they'll take a mile." I think that's lesson number one in learning how to negotiate, or in parenting teenagers. Well, there are a few players in this farm bill debate who are a shining example of why this phrase still holds true. In the new budgetary framework released by the chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees last week, most of the farm bill titles retain their current funding levels. However, there are a few titles that receive more money and even fewer titles that lose money. The titles that are the biggest winners in this proposal are nutrition, conservation and specialty crops. The biggest losers are the crop insurance, commodity and research programs. It was no surprise to hear those who support crop insurance, commodities and research crying foul soon after the budget proposal was released. No one wants to donate their scarce federal funds for someone else's program, especially in an environment where new federal dollars are proving harder and harder to come by. What was a surprise though, was hearing the big winners call for additional support on top of their already generous servings. Let me remind everyone that the major hold up to completing a farm bill has been budgetary issues. It took three months for the leadership to decide that this bill would spend $10 billion more than the current program. Fast forward to this new budget framework and you'll see the nutrition title has $9.5 billion for new programs; the conservation title has roughly $6 billion and the specialty crop programs rake in over $1 billion above what they already receive. It doesn't take a math major to figure out that the $10 billion in extra money won't cover these increases; yet, these groups are calling for more. Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Charlie Rangel recently was quoted saying he believes even more funds should go into the nutrition programs. Who is going to pay for this? He is the one who has put up the most resistance to providing the extra $10 billion in the first place. Research has been cut to the bone and so have the commodity and crop insurance programs. He knows this; yet, he and others still ask for more. This is a very troublesome signal for those on the farm. If our elected officials fail to see the importance of production agriculture, then we are in a world of hurt. Producers can only give so much before there's not much of a program left. I'd say farmers and ranchers have given much more than an inch; they've given acres and acres. If a farm bill is going to be completed not only in time, but also in a way that is still helpful to farmers, some folks are going to have to stop acting like teenagers looking for a raise in their allowance. 4/7/08 Date: 4/3/08
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