Congresswoman Kristi Noem is "incredibly disappointed"; she's also incredibly impotent. She and Speaker John Boehner failed to pass the Farm Bill in the House yesterday, primarily because one out of four House Republicans told Noem and Boehner to go jump in a lake and voted nay.
"[M]embers today were unable to put their own politics aside to do what’s best for the American people," whimpers Noem, knowing full well that if she had put aside her own politics of hatred for hungry people and favoritism for crop insurance salesmen like her husband, she could have won back two Democrats for every one Republican who peeled away and passed this bill.
A week ago, Pat Powers glibly blipped that Speaker Boehner's scheduling of the Farm Bill for a vote negated the critique that Democrats and farm advocates have long issued: that Noem isn't willing or able to work hard for passage of a good Farm Bill. But the proof is in the voting: Kristi Noem's Farm-Bill fecklessness remains Exhibit #1 in the case for replacing her with someone, anyone, who can get things done for South Dakota.
p.s.: To her credit, Rep. Noem did vote for the Fortenberry amendment to the Farm Bill, which would have capped commodity payments at $250K per farm (that amount of corporate welfare is still absurd, but it's an improvement over the status quo). Noem also voted against the McClintock amendment, which would have killed the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program. Alas, she voted for the Schweikert amendment to eliminate the Healthy Food Financing Initiative.
Proof once again South Dakota needs a competent member of the House. Noem either is incapable of the people skills needed to pass a farm bill or she chooses to remain uninvolved in D.C. This isn't rocket science, but it is the one big test of competency if you're representing South Dakota.
It was very disappointing to see her comments pointing blame at Democrats and the President. Even more disappointing is the shallow reporting I've seen from South Dakota's reporters on this vote and her lack of a role in enabling passage. This could never happen on Stephanie Herseth Sandlin's watch, nor on John Thune's watch, nor on Tim Johnson's watch when they held the House seat.
Something is very different now, and Noem needs to do better at explaining the failures than a partisan blame game. It ain't gonna wash in Hamlin County.
Here's Noem blaming the President. Tried to make sound fair by saying Republicans are to blame too.
When you add amendments, which the Republicans did, that are going to hurt people who can't defend themselves the democrats aren't going for it.
Of course the Tea Party folks didn't vote for it because it didn't cut food stamps enough.
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/80883/
Two words: BRENDAN JOHNSON
This comment a smart Democrat gave me last fall bears repeating: Noem wasn't elected to do the job of legislating. Noem was elected to do the job of raising campaign funds. That's the only job she does well. How long can she keep doing that job without a record of accomplishment? (Is a comparison to Thune here appropriate?)
I was hoping you'd mention her vote on the amendment to prohibit the (26?) members of the House that receive farm subsidies from personally benefitting from this boondoggle. One Member apparently has received more than $3 mil over the last decade. It ain't right.
Oh! Do you know which amendment that was, Curtis?
By voting yes on the Southerland and Goodlatte amendments, she went with the tea partiers' "poker chip gathering for the conference committee" strategy which Rep. Eric Cantor clearly explained in his after vote stone-throwing speech. Those amendments were the kiss of death for the bill and she ought to have had her finger on the pulse of the House well enough to have known it. But she voted for them anyway. Do you suppose Rep. Colin Peterson, or Rep. Lucas, the Ag Committee leaders who shepherded the bill, will ever give her the time of day again? And yea, really, the food stamp cuts aren't very big--barely enough to pay the bills for the troops in Afghanistan for 2-1/2 weeks.
Related: Noem catches heck from Think Progress as one of ten House members arguing for food stamp cuts while benefiting from crop subsidies. The article also notes that the error rate for crop subsidy payments is higher than the error rate for SNAP/food stamps.
How nice of her to support capping commodity payments at $250,000 PER YEAR/per farm at the same time she tried to take food stamps away from poor people. The rich farmers gotta get more than their share of taxpayer dollars first before the hungry in America get dinner. What? You mean most Democrats didn't go for this bill?
Looks to me like there is plenty of room left to negotiate a farm bill in which the farmers are protected against catastrophe yet the poor get food stamps.
Rep. Noem's big problem is that she went to Washington without any experience in working in a divided government. She's used to the SD system where the GOP has a 2/3 majority in both house and senate, and the Governor. In DC, being a party-line person will get you nowhere. Rep. Noem admits she hasn't built any relationships across the aisle. Her FOX News rhetoric and attack dog style make it nearly impossible for her to win friends and influence people across the aisle.
Stephanie understood the need to build some goodwill among her colleagues, but Rep. Noem hasn't figured that out and probably never will. She may be able to find protection as just another talking-point spewing member of the big GOP house caucus, but she's not going to accomplish anything unless and until the GOP takes the Senate and the Presidency. Bottom line: she's not a legislative player - just a political player.
This is a massive failure for any farm state Republican in the House, especially if they also foolishly overreached by supporting the Southerland amendment. How can a Republican in a rural community vote for this level of idiocy and incompetence? The DCCC should be flogged if they fail to recruit A list candidates to remove these useless House members from rural districts.
Kristi is one of those people who always blames someone else. That is why she is so ineffective as a legislator.
Iowa Representative King's Amendment was a huge issue for many including myself and others that condone animal cruelty.
To quote: "King has led the fight in Congress to block legislation to crack down on the barbaric practices of dogfighting and cockfighting. During consideration of the 2012 Farm bill, King led an unsuccessful effort to defeat a McGovern amendment to make it a crime for an adult to attend or to bring a child to a dogfight or cockfight. A three-year study by the Chicago Police Department found that 70 percent of animal offenders had also been arrested for other felonies, including domestic and aggravated battery, illegal drug trafficking, and sex crimes. That pattern of behavior undoubtedly encouraged the Fraternal Order of Police, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and nearly 200 law enforcement agencies from across the country to support the current effort in Congress to quash illegal dogfighting and cockfighting."
I wish to make an historical note. Revolutions occur when the people as a whole do not get what they want. Food and shelter are on top of the list...everything else falls below that threshold. Historically, there have been food riots when people were starving and food was kept from the masses. It's not the same as famine. Food has always been a tool of control. If people perceive that food is being withheld...it will not bode well for the society that does this withholding. Noem and other Republicans are so blind that just can't see history, but thankfully there are Republicans who do see it and voted against starving the masses in this country. "Masses" in the case means the working poor and those who cannot earn enough to feed themselves for whatever reason. If the Republicans had succeeded in taking food off the table in America...well, I don't think it would have been pretty. So many Republicans, like Noem, simply do not understand history and think people who need food stamps are loafing. Oh, there might be a few. And yes, there will always be crooked parts of these programs...misuse, etc. But the vast majority of those do need these things....and history education won out this time....as well as good old fashioned Christianity. Feed the poor, etc. The "new" Christians only use their religion to get elected and to maintain the separation of economic classes. Nothing new here. It's a scenario as old as time.
The balance is shifting. Even the Romans understood the need to feed...and entertain...the masses....as bad that as that entertainment might have been. Noem and others will not learn...they will stick to their "guns"...and get their backs up by calling everything liberal and therefore, bad. Somethings came about as a result of old fashioned Christianity....and food stamps was one. Glad she's lost this vote....and I hope the good Christian people of South Dakota wake up and throw her out of office. All she represents is the greed of the upper classes who are willing to do anything to get money...including robbing the poor to support their money and power habit.
The mainstream media coverage of the Farm Bill has been atrocious. Lots of sorrowful handwringing, with plenty of he said/she said blame to go around. Inaccurate blather about this being a "bipartisan" bill, and how "some people" (i.e., Democrats) wouldn't "put politics aside" to vote for it. Yes, why would anybody stubbornly cling to their shallow "political" beliefs that we shouldn't cut off food stamps from hungry children and needy people! If one party would simply have given the other party everything it wanted, we could've passed the bill. Both sides do it! Et cetera!
It's almost like news agencies are trying to misinform people.
Any cub reporter who's covered a state legislature, even one as simple as South Dakota's, learns to follow the ball when it comes to floor action, and then to tell it like it happened. The farm bill, when it was allowed by Boehner to come to the floor, had the votes needed to pass it.
But in today's U.S. House of Representatives, passing legislation takes a back seat to scoring Tea Party points back to the narrow base that the House member rely upon to stay in office.
Boehner had a Republican farm bill in hand. It was troublesome to many Democratic House members who felt Americans down on their luck from the economy got the shaft. He had, however, enough Democrats to help the Republicans pass the bill. And then the poison pills got added in, reneging on the compromise that held the promise of passage together. All heck broke loose and the Repubicans' farm bill went down in flames because the goofballs in the GOP caucus lack the discipline to leave a compromise alone.
I'm sure the rednecks back home who hate Obama, hate poor people, and hate government's role of protecting the elderly, veterans, children in poverty and anyone who can't afford ridiculously high premiums for health insurance, got a big kick out of trashing that farm bill. But that's not how to responsibly run a government. It is the recipe to destroy our economy and ruin chances for a full recovery from the GOP-inspired Great Recession. Bottom line is these people sank the ship and they want to keep it sunk.