Congresswoman Kristi Noem's "tenacity and dedication" to passing a Farm Bill have proven illusory and useless. Politico reports that Noem and her colleagues will fail to pass a Farm Bill before going on Christmas vacation:
Farm bill negotiators conceded Tuesday that they will not finish their work before Congress goes home for the year, but insisted that they are close to a final deal and working toward floor action in early January.
"We are very confident that we are going to have an agreement," Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said. "We will be ready to vote in January" [David Rogers, "No Farm Bill in 2013," Politico, 2013.12.10].
This failure of leadership and advocacy is stunning. Instead of pushing for a final solution for South Dakota's agricultural producers that should have happened a year and a half ago, Rep. Noem has been wasting her time with political posturing on school lunches. When Rep. Noem advocates taking food away from people who can't afford it but handing more meat and bread to kids who throw vegetables away, not to mention handing her husband more federally subsidized crop insurance business, it's no wonder that she lacks the moral authority to push forward a Farm Bill.
The reason ranchers in Montana and North Dakota, for two states, send donated cattle to South Dakota is because they know full well that new republicans cannot deliver a Farm Bill. They know full well that they have a failure of leadership and ranchers are on their own. NOem and the rest of the red state new republicans can only vote to repeal Obamacare, over and over again for nothing. Ranchers see this as a sign that new republicans can organize to vote on a failed bill some 43 times but cannot organize once, just once, to come to their aid. Ranchers see this as failed leadership from their elected officials and know that leeches like NOem only are in congress for their own greed. NO More NOem
Why does this not surprise me? How about we as taxpayers and those who elect our representatives mandate that when on official business elected officials must wear uniforms that have patches on like those NASCAR drivers have showing who their sponsors are. This would be perfect for Noem and others like her.
No to Noem in 2014! What a waste of valuable space.
Another year is gone and still no farm bill? Really? Think of every South Dakotan who got elected to Congress from South Dakota in the last 80 years:
Jim Abdnor
Jim Abourezk
E.Y. Berry
Francis Case
Tom Daschle
Frank Denholm
Stephanie Herseth
Bill Janklow
Tim Johnson
Stephanie Herseth
Fred Hildebrandt
Harold Lovre
George McGovern
Karl Mundt
Larry Pressler
Ben Reifel
Clint Roberts
John Thune
Theodore Werner
The least capable of these is Kristi Noem, by a long shot.
She is lazy. She lives in a thick extreme partisan shell. She can’t or won’t bargain to do what others before her did, which was get a farm bill passed. She’s a lousy campaigner, relying on last-minute smears and tons of money from her D.C. pals to get re-elected. She seems indifferent to being in Washington, perhaps because she lacks the insight to know greater achievements are expected from South Dakota’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
It was easy to get elected in her old legislative district where they hyper-gerrymandered so it would be impossible for a Republican to lose. They treated her like a little queen in Pierre. Everything was easy.
Now, three years have passed with nothing to show. It’s time South Dakota woke up and sent a competent South Dakotan in the tradition of anyone on the above list to fill that empty seat in the House.
maybe she would have had more pull if she used the banana phone!
How many more examples do South Dakotans need, before they give Ms Noem her walking papers? Before they finally stop voting against their best interests?
If nothing else, hopefully this reveals to voters that she has zero pull in D.C. None. Zip. Nada.
Jerry, you are exactly correct. Doesn't take much to vote 40+ times on repealing the ACA, but just can't quite get organized enough to vote for a farm bill. Dang, wake up folks!
Spending time in the minority makes for better legislators. If you're in the minority you have to compromise. You have to meet members of the other party and earn their respect and make allies - if you want to get anything done. Hyperpartisanship doesn't endear you to the people whose help you need to pass your priorities.
Look at the names of SD's members of congress that Rick posted above. Most of them, especially in the past 30 years, were at some point in the minority in the house or senate. Kristi Noem spent 4 years in a supermajority in the SD legislature and now 4 years in the majority in the US House. In the last campaign she admitted she hasn't gotten to know Democrats in congress. Functioning only in the majority party, Rep. Noem simply hasn't developed the skills or the coalitions that she needs to put together legislation. I don't think she has a real interest in the work horse aspects of the job. She's a show horse. Much more fun to lob attacks on Obamacare and get on Fox News than to deal with nuts and bolts of putting together legislation.
I wouldn't want Noem to negotiate an auto purchase for me, much less negotiate national policy. She may be on a committee, but she has never demonstrated any skill. I didn't always agree with Stephanie, but she had skill and folks knew SD had a Congresswoman in D.C.
It took me awhile to figure this out, but I think I did.
Noem is actuall an anti-socialist and therefore can no longer support socialism in the agricultural industry, regardless of the financial impact on her.
By here continued refusal to work on the farm bill, just think of the money she is saving the American taxpayer.
Good work Kristi.