| I'm late in commenting on this, but hopefully I'll make up for it by doing a good job on it. The Obama 2012 budget came out weeks ago now, and I didn't pay toooo much attention to it because, of course, it's Congress who makes the decisions. Obama's version is basically just a request that Congress can take or leave.
Then there's the Republican's budget in the House, and that's a 2011 budget. If you recall, Congress never passed a budget for 2011 in the last session, instead they just continued the 2010 budget into 2011 and more or less procrastinated doing anything else... until now. The clock is ticking and if they don't pass SOMETHING within days, the government will shut down. I'm of the mind that that's what the Republicans actually want... so long as they can blame the Democrats for it.
More below about where ag fits in. |
| First up, the Obama budget. You can hear Tom Vilsack talk about the ag portion of it here. The budget makes a lot of sense, quite frankly, although I don't agree with it entirely. First of all, I don't agree with the notion that we should cut spending right now. Classic Keynesian economics says we need stimulative spending in a recession and once the economy's going again, tax revenues will be up, and THEN we can cut spending and deal with the deficit. But Obama took the "cut spending" bait.
On the other hand, I like where he asked for his cuts: Direct payments. That's the subsidy money that farmers get whether they need it or not. Obama proposes cutting direct payments to any farmer who makes over $500k in farm income or $250k in non-farm income. I think that's a no-brainer... particularly the $250k in non-farm income. If you're making a quarter million doing something that isn't even farming, why are you getting free government money???
That said, I highly doubt Congress would actually do this. The Farm Bureau's against it, for one thing. Frank Lucas, the new House Ag Committee Chair, has declared direct payments to be the most WTO-compliant of our farm subsidies. And he's actually right. Which just goes to show the disconnect between our trade policy (the WTO, which I believe Obama supports) and our ag policy (the direct payments, which Obama wants to cut).
Obama's budget also fully funds conservation spending and nutrition assistance programs like food stamps (SNAP) and WIC. Vilsack pointed out that much of the conservation money is important for mid-sized farms (which are, as a category, endangered) to keep afloat, and the nutrition payments, well... in this economy we've got a lot of hungry people. Plus, the nutrition money is highly stimulative to the economy.
Last, Obama calls for increasing the money spent on promoting U.S. ag exports. Vilsack explains this as trying to stimulate the economy by helping farmers sell more of their crops overseas. And if you're for the whole free-trade model where we buy cheap crap from China at Wal-Mart, manufacture nothing, and make up for the trade deficit by selling cheap commodities all over the world, then this is wonderful.
So that's Obama and the 2012 budget. If you take a look at the Republican plan for 2011, it's a totally different story. I'm sure you've heard a lot about it already, but one of the things that will hit ag the most are the cuts to the EPA. I did a piece for Alternet on this here (although my piece does not solely focus on ag). Chairman Lucas has been joking that EPA stands for "End Production Agriculture," so he's totally on board with the idea that the EPA is a hostile threat to America that needs to be stopped.
Additionally, the Republican budget that the House just passed for the remainder of 2011 cuts WIC - the program that funds low income infants, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and children under 5 - by 10%. Recall from above that this program is not just badly needed during hard times, but it stimulates the economy. If you don't like the 10% cut to WIC, tell your Senators, because they have to take up this budget next.
Neither the 2011 or 2012 budget is a done deal, yet. Far from it. I would expect a government shut down unless Congress does something sensible like pass a short-term extension of the 2010 budget again so they can continue debate. This is heating up to be a chicken fight between House Republicans and Senate Dems... and we know who usually caves first. |
