While I was gone, Rep. Kristi Noem proved herself a complete failure. Instead of using her newly won mandate from the people of South Dakota to push for a better Farm Bill, Rep. Noem caved to her own fecklessness and voted for the status quo.
She declared that she couldn't move her own House Ag Committee's rotten bill. She failed to forge any sort of compromise with the Senate and its superior version of the Farm Bill. She could only whimper "Aye" to a mere nine-month extension of the existing Farm Bill, the policy crafted by the last Congresswoman South Dakota had who had any ability or desire to get things done in Washington, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.
South Dakota Farm Bureau president Scott VanDarWal says this nine-month extension is "probably the best we could do," but S.D. Farmers Union president Doug Sombke calls Nome's failure to legislate "a complete disappointment to family farmers, ranchers and dairymen of America."
Noem may be able to claim she has thrown farmers a lifeline, but in fact she's stringing them along, dragging out the uncertainty they face from another year of the same old arguments and intransigence from a Republican Congresswoman and GOP House majority who can't do their jobs.
Both are correct. The crap sandwich, known as the weak farm bill extension, was "probably the best" Noem and her pal Boehner can do, according to VanDarWal. And Sombke is correct that Noem's crap sandwich farm bill is "a complete disappointment" to the future of farmers and ranchers and agribusinesses.
Face it. The only thing you can depend on from Noem and Boehner's House is one disaster after the other, handled as poorly as possible.
Dougal is right. The House promises nothing but one disaster after another. Noem is part of the problem. All she does is wait around for party leadership to tell her what to do and write her talking points for her. When she said Veteran's Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki was "slow walking" our delegation on the Hot Springs VA, I wondered where she got that talking point. Then I heard Boehner accuse Democrats of "slow walking" the GOP on debt cliff talks. Question answered. Polly want a cracker - Rep. Noem?
The foolish part is, it's all self imposed. Their main strategy seems to be to go about divising and setting traps to later ensnare themselves. The biggest bunch of clowns ever to walk the halls of Congress, they have made a laughing stock of the GOP. SHS should be glad she didn't have to serve in that class.
Evidence: http://www.pollingreport.com/rep.htm
Bachmann/Noem psychopathy:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/01/03/1394071/bachmann-repeal-obamacare/
You greedy Marxists are without limits. First we have a debt ceiling crisis, the solution becomes the fiscal cliff crisis, which creates another debt ceiling crisis, and the only things we hear is more spending for the Sandy storm crisis and the milk crisis if we don't spend more on a farm bill. Does anybody on ths web site have any clue about what it means when you steal from children so they can drink milk? Does anybody want to pay for their own children's milk?
Sibby: Russia has a 13% flat tax. Give me your address and I'll mail you a one-way ticket.
Once again, Sibby proves my point by chiming in with a spectacularly stupid comment. Thanks, Steve. p.s. Happy New Year.
Steve makes an interesting point, but misses the target at whom it should be aimed. The "marxists" to be questioned here in the context of the Farm Bill should be our farmers - those who instead of embracing capitalism and all of its inherent risk, look instead to the government for price supports and insurance guarantees on crops.
Let me be clear, I am not calling farmers marxists, I only point out that if Steve wants to point his finger at those who take from government, then the people he should be addressing this righteous anger (and verbal slurs) toward are those paid with Farm Bill tax dollars.
I have posted before that the difference between a conservative and a liberal is how they view government spending: conservatives see spending as only money - therefore bad; liberals see it as programs - therefore good. If the Farm Bill is bad, that argument ought to be framed in the context of the value it provides for the US, its farmers, and its commodities - not in simple metrics of dollars spent.
This is where the House GOP goes into the death skid - they want to cut government spending, just not for those who THEY care about. Defense is the main recipient of this dysfunctional GOP largess for spending government money. When the rhetoric of WHAT (WHO) to cut is put to the test, the GOP becomes far more silent than when they can rail against the abstract of "spending."
Red states calling for new Marxist farm bill:
http://www.kios.org/post/johanns-senate-must-begin-work-new-farm-bill
Larry, I had to chuckle, maybe "red" state has a new, non-GOP context now. l
Vilsack on the future of a food, farm, and jobs bill:
http://blogs.usda.gov/2013/01/04/secretarys-column-looking-ahead-to-2013/
Mr. O'Brien,
You missed the point, $Trillions of points...our Federal debt.
"Russia has a 13% flat tax."
Sounds cool! Maybe I could write my books in St. Petersburg!
One problem: If you're an expatriate from somewhere else, I believe Russia, in its post-Soviet progressive system, also has a rather steep insurance premium that you can pay (or not) for the privilege of not getting murdered.
Several different enterprises offer this optional service. I think the take is something like 40 percent.
Maybe Cory could shed some more light on that. I hope I'm wrong, but my eyes are brown, not blue ...
My view on spending: If you get at least your money's worth, and it's what you want, then it's good, as long as the interest on the loan isn't too high. If you get ripped off or fooled into buying something you don't need or want, or if you get loan-sharked, then it's bad.
The other day I saw "Stop Spending" etched into the dust on the rear window of an SUV.
I thought, hmmm ... If it were only that simple. But it ain't.
If we stop spending, it means no one buys anything, so no one makes any profit, so no one can afford to hire workers, so ...
They call it currency for a reason. Western economies work by making money flow. When money stops flowing, we have recession.
Presto!
As for Noem and the farm bill, I reckon that on this site, she can't win. If only the farm bill were the only unfinished business that Congress needs to get down to work on!
At the end of the day, the little people get the crust no matter who slices the pie.
Final rant note: A bit of wisdom heard on BBC the other nite as I executed my Slime And Fizz Engorgement (SAFE) algorithm: "You can't distrubute wealth before it's created."
Take that, comrades!
Unless Dems get Brendan Johnson or SHS to run she is in for a long time.
Noem bundler implicated in collusion:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/freedomworks-rich-donors-armey-kibbe-super-pac
http://www.freedomworksforamerica.org/candidate/kristi-noem