Sen. Coburn's Odd Pro-Dust Bowl Spending Cut Idea
Like many elected officials Senator Tom Coburn is back in his state for the August Recess. While he's home he's been working on his own federal budget proposal that would continue to decapitate any attempt at federal spending. His series of interviews with his local paper advocates, among other things, a drastic cut from a large portion of his state's backbone: Farmers.
In the piece he proposes (emphasis is mine)
In his $9 trillion plan to balance the budget in 10 years, Sen. Tom Coburn would eliminate the old-style programs [meaning farm subsidies] and the checks, called direct payments, to save more than $70 billion. Coburn, R-Muskogee, would also scale back U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs that pay people not to farm on sensitive land, saving almost $50 billion over the next decade.
Here's the thing about conservation programs Coburn might not understand: They were started in the Dust Bowl in effort to help the struggling industry and protect the land. Right now Oklahoma is suffering from an astounding drought that has been going on since October of last year. It's concerning that during this record drought that rivals anything seen during the Dust Bowl that the state's Senator would be talking about cutting the very conservation programs that have kept the dust storms at bay since the 1930's.
The cost share programs and technical assistance offered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service coupled with land retirement under CRP have been the things that have kept the wind and water erosion in check for the last 70 to 80 years. If we stop these efforts, we run the risk that we will repeat the mistakes of the past. Farmers and ranchers will no longer have the technical help they need from agronomist, engineer or hydrologist. Nor will they have the financial assistance necessary to help them cope with the costs of making conservation improvements to their land. Remember, these cost the producer money-- it's a COST-SHARE program with the landowner putting his own dollars on the ground and just matching federal helps. Some of which actually cut production in the short term due the retirement of land or the conversion of crop land to grass that while marginal, would produce a decent crop for a few years until it erodes away.
Without this help and with tight bottom lines, many producers won't be able to keep up with the natural resource challenges on their land. I know some of you will say "its their land, they will take care of it" but remember the reason why agriculture kept moving west in the 1800's was because land would get "burned up" or "farmed out" or "used up" so production had to keep moving west to find more fertile farm ground--these were the farming practices that led to the dust bowl. The market dictates that a farmer get all he can from his land. Without cost-share programs and technical assistance many farmers will not be able to do otherwise. They won't be able to afford to.
These programs also protect the water supply of urban areas near by. Remember, if it is gets in the water upstream, eventually folks down stream will drink it or pay to treat it. The same programs that address soil erosion also help keep nutrients and bacteria out of the water. If a farmer can address non-point run off on his or her land using a program through USDA (and remember, this is a cost share program) it will cost far less for tax payers to build a water treatment plant down stream. It also will be a more permanent fix while the water treatment plant will wear out in a few years.
Bottom line--we all have to do our part to balance the budget. Agriculture generally and conservation in particular will be cut. But it's a bad idea to gut or eliminate the very programs that are holding the tide of dust at bay when we may very well be entering a drought like the ones we saw in the 1930's and 1950's. We need to do our part. We just need to be smart about how we do it and Sen. Coburn doesn't know the first thing about any of it. Perhaps, we should just cut Tom Coburn's salary instead, since he doesn't want to do anything for his state as a leader.
Here's the thing, he doesn't care. Coburn is a rich politician who probably never touched a farm tool in his life. Even if he did, it probably haven't been for decades. It's not his farm that is facing destruction, so why does he have to worry?
Isn't this the same Tom Coburn that said “It’s just a good thing I can’t pack a gun on the Senate floor.”?
I'd just say, it sure is a good thing, and i'll add, it's just too bad you weren't fired for having said such an irresponsible thing.
Now he's trying to drown Oklahoma in a bath tub, while he has the chance. Republicans are the party of selfish irresponsibility.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
More than anything else I think we need to know who the legitimate farmers are and who are corporation that own farms for free federal money or tax shelters or whatever.
Frankly, I'm really tired of the whole farmers thing because on one hand we're bashing republicans who don't farm but own farms and take federal money and the we turn around and try to defend farmers who get federal money and want to protect them from losing it. I think this calls for a very big WTF?!?!?!?
Anybody else confused about this because my stand is that yes, we help really farmers - family farmers who actually go out and work on their farms.
But pretend farms that just own land, don't do anything and are extraordinarily wealthy - well they don't need my tax dollars.
She has one.
That's why she raised 23 Foster kids.
Corporate welfare slaves? Free farm-hands, and corporate welfare from the state and Feds to boot.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
She's also keeping them all under wraps, and we know she would be exploiting them in the media if it would be advantageous to do so.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
From CBS news - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-200721...
She was paid to provide temporary assistance to some kids, and in 7 1/2 years 23 of them were cycled through her home, no more than 3 at a time. That is quite different from "raising" them.
With all of the Republican rope factory building going on.
Keep it up boys and girls- the demise of your party is nearing.
First they ignore us..then they ridicule us..now they are feeding us chicken crap- sign my petition:
https://www.change.org/petitions/usda-stop-th...
www.ickenittlepost.com
They are cutting off the "Little Switzerland" mountain tops in West Virginia, and they are setting up another dust-bowl across the fruited plains, and they haven't figured out what the hell to do with spent nuclear fuel and on and on and they just don't give a good god damned because they DON'T CARE! AMEN!
Sorry for yelling.
Farm subsidies are one thing - we've all read about the abuse.
But keeping alive the agency charged with preventing the return of the 30s Dust Bowl is something else.
It's bad enough already. When the agricultural industry (Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill) scooped up all those family farms after the banksters colluded to bankrupt them back in the 80s, one of the first things they did was tear down all the rows of trees that had been planted on the section boundaries to prevent erosion. They tore them down to make it easier for their big machinery to work larger areas, but they unleashed the very forces those trees were planted to resist - the hot winds that parched the land and blew away the soil, creating the Dust Bowl of the 30s.
Kind of like what's happening there now.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
RUN... do not walk... to SUPPORT him on this.
$261.9 billion in subsidies 1995-2010.
$167.3 billion in commodity subsidies.
$39.2 billion in crop insurance subsidies.
$35.0 billion in conservation subsidies.
$20.5 billion in disaster subsidies.
Top Commodity Recipients 1995-2010
Top Commodity Recipients in 2010
62 percent of farmers in United States did not collect subsidy payments - according to USDA.
Ten percent collected 74 percent of all subsidies.
Amounting to $165.9 billion over 16 years.
Top 10%: $30,751 average per year between 1995 and 2010.
Bottom 80%: $587 average per year between 1995 and 2010.
http://farm.ewg.org/region.php?fips=00000
"Corn is central to agriculture in the United States, where it is grown in greater volumes and receives more government subsidies than any other crop. Between 1995 and 2006 corn growers received $56 billion in federal subsidies, and the annual figure may soon hit $10 billion.
But in recent years, environmentalists have branded corn as an icon of unsustainable agriculture. It requires large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, both of which require large amounts of fossil fuel to manufacture.
Most of the resulting corn is fed to livestock who didn’t evolve to subsist entirely on corn. In cattle, eating corn increases flatulence emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — and creates an intestinal environment rich in e. coli, a common cause of food poisoning. That necessitates mixing cow feed with antibiotics, in turn producing antibiotic-resistant disease strains.
Many of those livestock end up in high-calorie, low-nutrition franchised fast foods, which have been repeatedly linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Fast food’s biggest selling point is its low price — and that, say industry critics, is largely possible because of corn’s ubiquitous cheapness."
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/fas...
And the BIGGEST Difference between now and Great Depression?
During the Great Depression 20% of America worked on farms. Today it's LESS THAN 2%. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib3/eib...
And just how do you plan to feed the masses?
...if they're not getting massive handouts from the Government.
See also:
"Farmer who put up sign claiming Democrats are ‘party of parasites’ has taken $1 million in farm subsidies."
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/06/23/...
Time to end using corn for fuel, instead invest in converting non-food agricultural waste into fuel.
But what to do with/for the farmers heavily invested in ethanol corn?
Excellent article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/au...
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Seems like the real problem behind farm/agriculture subsidies is who gets it, and what they are doing with it. Otherwise, it seems like it could be one of the expenses that could be worthy of the cost - unlike subsidies to oil and the MIC.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Our watersheds would collapse. One of the best subsidies we have keeps farmers from damaging their own rivers and streams, which they do much like fishermen damage their own fisheries.
Politics, Farmers and Change: The End of Rural America
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/19-6
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Rereading this entire blog post, it's starting to sound like a paid placement by the Corn Lobby... :-(
"Sarah...is a current partner in the online media firm Mixed Media that works in Kansas and Oklahoma and manages social media and online marketing for non-profits and political candidates..."
Kansas and Oklahoma you say? Interesting. Veddy, veddy interesting.
People need to eat, and farms feed people. Putting people in prison has become a business for profit rather than for justice.
A reasonable approach might be to redirect the farm subsidies away from so much corn, and into other things.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
...they have a hobbies.
Very expensive hobbies which the Taxpayer is expected to pay for.
See also:
"The government will spend $17 billion subsidizing farmers this year. Rather than focusing on the producers of good-for-you fruits and vegetables — half its subsidies go to grain farmers, whose crops feed animals for meat, milk and eggs and become cheap ingredients in processed food..."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8904252/ns/health...
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01...
If you just take a look, you'll see i said nothing of the sort.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
One of the complaints about Washington in general is that they make rules and laws about various industries they know absolutely nothing about. It would appear that Tom Colburn flunked 20th century American History. That great saying comes to mind. Those that fail to learn from the mistakes of history will repeat them. So now I guess Tom (the dust bowl king) Colburn will create the 21st century great American GOP Dust bowl. At least it will be something that will endure for a long time. Once you destroy the land it is really hard to get it back. Virtually all my cousins in Nebraska and Iowa are farmers, and good ones. My grandparents were both farmers. There have been many changes in farming over the years and yes, banks did destroy the family farm in the 1980s with strong mal-intent, just like Wallstreet did in the last 4 years. It was not an accident, it was pure greed. Yet,absolutely no one has gone to prison or paid any real price for their evil. Now Tom Colburn sets out on his one man crusade to finally destroy the farmlands of the mid-West. Unfortunately he has the power and the will to actually do it. Because as long as he is anti-abortion and pro- gun (I own three myself) GOP voters will let him do whatever he wants and never have to pay a price for his misdeeds. Afterwards they will find a way to blame the Democrats through some twisted logic.
You can go for weeks and not hear a word out of or about him and all of a sudden, he's out there in front of the cameras running in circles, making Foghorn J Leghorn style pronouncements and just generally kind of biting himself in the ass. And then he just kind of fades back under his rock until the next time he gets some wild hair and decides to repeat the whole thing.
I'm originally FROM Oklahoma and I don't remember people being dumb enough to keep electing someone like that over and over again but I'm damned if they don't have Coburn AND Inhofe. Their new license plate says "Oklahoma Used To Be OK"..
That is someone who was born in Oklahoma and live some of their childhood in the state I'd just like to point out that the good Senator Coburn was not born in the state. To my way of thinking this goes a long way to understanding why he is so clueless about the 'Dust Bowl', he was not raised on stores about life in Oklahoma during the 'Dust Bowl' from his parents or grandparents. It's not something he feels in his bones. It also means he is not a Sooner, nor an Okie, he maybe an Oklahoman but he's not one my granddad would have recognized.
let's not vote for the new guy cuz he came from a big city so he must be smart.
After teh GOP puts the screws to the dimbulbs in Oklahoma yet again, the morons will go out and still re-elect him and Inhofe anyway.
You can't fix stupid.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
...science like political science or something so he knows stuff. Cutting stuff is fun and easy especially if the cuts make life fall into the crapper for his constituents, he can always quit and get a lucrative job as a lobbyist for companies who'll (or "that'll", I'm conflicted with corporations being people and all) make out like bandits on re-mediating the drought.
Seriously, do you think any of these bastards really cares about anything other than what they'll retire with?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Don't expect retirement aged politicians to understand economic externalities and understand which program is mean to counter them. They do not get (re)elected for their competence.
That is the mind of this politician. Ideology trumps the salt of the earth. Let the lands wither and the dust blow far and wide. The people have given their power away to the almighty corporations that now rule the land. A devastated section of the country must be in their plans. Senator Tom Coburn does not question his masters, only obeys. But you citizen can effect the changes needed to save your future.
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