Obama traveling to Michigan to sign farm bill

And I thought his office was in DC!  And he always go after our young college students!  ~ Lynn

The Washington Times, by Dave Boyer, February 7, 2014

As he prepared to sign the new farm bill, President Obama ordered his administration Friday to promote a new “Made in Rural America” initiative to promote exports and investment.

Mr. Obama will travel to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., Friday to sign the farm bill and give a speech about its importance to the economy.

Read more!  

Sweet deal for the sugar industry

Washington Examiner, Jan. 3, 2014

 

While Congress is still shaping a new farm bill that will set federal agriculture policies for the next five years, at least one item is almost certain to remain intact in the final draft: the sugar program.

Farm subsidies typically are among the most bipartisan measures on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers from agricultural states and districts — despite party — come together to ensure their success. And the sugar program is no exception.

But a growing coalition of fiscal conservatives, free marketers and environmentalists, along with with the powerful food-manufacturing industry, say the federal policy aimed at helping sugarcane farmers is archaic and unfair, and vow to continue their fight.

"The sugar program is the most Soviet [style] centrally planned of all the agriculture programs," said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning Washington think tank. "It really is astounding."

READ MORE ON THIS CRONYISM HERE!

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE APRIL 30, 2013

FROM THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION!

Senate:


Internet Sales Tax--Last Thursday cloture was invoked to end debate on the mis-titled Market Place Fairness Act (S. 743) by a vote of 63-30. Vote on final passage will happen on Monday, May 6, which will send the bill over to the House. The final vote will require only a majority to pass the bill, so 14 supporters would have to flip to stop it. We have identified 10 awful things about the Internet Sales Tax to keep in mind as well as issued a “Key Vote” against the Senate bill. Remember the House will be a key firewall to the legislation being stopped. Therefore, please click here to see whether or not your House Member is on the co-sponsor list for the Internet Sales Tax.

Immigration:  The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin marking up the so-called Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration reform legislation on May 9th. It will most likely be considered for a vote before July 4th. It’s important to know that this piece of legislation provides amnesty and does so within 6 months for all current 11 million here illegally. The “Path to citizenship” is a problem but it is vitally important to focus on the bills’ amnesty within six months. Senator Rubio has defended the bill by saying there are triggers, but there is nothing binding in the law. We need to kill this bill in the Senate, but the House is our firewall. For additional reference please see the attached one pager.

Senator Cruz video:  Senator Ted Cruz recently spoke to a group of activists in Texas about the effectiveness of your persistence in Congressional accountability during the recent gun control debate. It is worth watching.

House:

Immigration:  The House immigration working group “Gang of 10” is considering a plan that would require illegal immigrants to appear in federal court and admit to breaking immigration law, before being granted amnesty. We need their immigration plan to go through regular order and through the Judiciary Committee in order for the conservatives to help provide an open and transparent process. House Leadership has not really said which way they are going to go, but they have encouraged Members in the House “Gang of 10” to come up with the bill. When asking our Representatives if they oppose the bill, we need to make sure we are asking them if they oppose amnesty, meaning any legalized states (and not just path to citizenship).

Farm Bill:  The Farm Bill in the House was nearly a $1 trillion dollar bill in 2012 ($957 billion over 10 years). The farm bill in 2008 was $604 billion over ten years—a 63% increase. 80% of the bill was federal food stamp funding. This is because there are now 46 million individuals on food stamps, compared with 17 million in 2000 and 30 million in 2008 respectively. 1 out of every 7 Americans are now on food stamps. Farm Bill supporters marry food stamps and farm subsidies in order to create the dynamic to generate support and pass it. Our Representatives need to answer why they support hundreds of billions in food stamps and then convince them to split the bill. The House is expected to unveil their new bill soon and consider it in May. It is expected to be similar to the bill that we helped block last year. However, we need to start educating the Congress on the bill’s expected problems now.

Future of the Family Farm

I do not farm; neither does my family, but it just so happens that God has given me an incredible passion for farming families. You see, I live in Cove City, NC surrounded by cotton fields, tobacco crops, horse pastures and forestry. The beauty of it all is incredible, the peacefulness of watching what was sown, then grow and produce fruit, is so satisfying! To hear the knickers of the horses from my front porch, or the echo’s of cattle and donkey’s braying back and forth brings a smile to my face. To look out and see the red-tail hawks, the blue jays, cardinals and woodpeckers, to see an occasional deer, or even a bear reminds me that I am certainly not the center of the universe…… It is all of Creation, a blessing, to be able to live off of what we have been given.

I know these men and women who do work the land, I have seen the headlights from their tractors at wee hours in the middle of the night. I have seen as what they work on for months at a time come close to complete ruin in drought and extreme wet conditions and I have seen hurricanes completely decimate entire crops in a matter of hours.

Currently I see worry in the faces of these farmers, ones who have strived their entire lives to leave the farm for their children. As property taxes continue to increase on equipment and talk of the Present Use Value program changes heating up, we now have the inheritance tax issue’s that would destroy the family farm as we know it. All of this as continual regulation increases for products that can and can’t be used, places where farming is and isn't allowed due to zoning regulations and pricing of the commodities continually changing- sometimes not even allowing the farmer to recoup his cost of harvest! How can this way of living, one that each and every human being depends on, be in such turmoil?

Something most people do not realize is a reliance of military bases on agricultural land. Especially here in Eastern NC, we are surrounded by bases and used on flight paths for maneuvers, it is essential that farmland remain. In NC our #1 industry is Agriculture and our #2 is the MILITARY. These industries go hand in hand in support of one another. Yet, statistics tell us NC is the #1 state in LOSS of farmland.

This is happening due to several issues from what I have witnessed first hand

1) The median age of a farmer today is 58 years old. Family sizes are not what they used to be requiring farmers to hire additional help. If there is not a family member willing to take over the farm, it is more then likely sold.

2) The expense of starting a farming business is astronomical. If you were lucky enough to be born into a farming family you have a chance, but if not, the chances of you acquiring enough land, affording the extensive and expensive equipment, and having enough cash flow to begin are slim to none- and all this depending on surviving with good crops the first few years weather permitting!

3) Farming isn’t as attractive as the movies have made it out to be. It is a 365 day a year job, especially if you raise livestock. The hours are constant, and again the costs incredible…..not many people want to dedicate themselves to this way of life!

4) The expansion of residential areas and highways are continually encroaching on the family farm. While it seems good for whatever municipality to grow, the truth is the costs of services also increase tremendously to that particular area and it ends up in the form of taxation to all residents. While there was once a piece of land with crops that required no water/sewer/electrical hook ups, now new lines must be run for all utilities and manpower hired for additional housing management in the form of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, fire fighter’s, health and social workers and so on…..the bigger the population, the more services are needed. Not many realize that.

I do not have answers for these issues other then somehow our farms must be protected at all costs.

One last point that I would like to add…..I have heard out of people’s mouth’s that “farm subsidies and property taxation reductions on land are like farming welfare”. I beg to differ! When a farmer loses his entire crop to a disaster, we are all affected financially in the ability to purchase a necessity. They must have GOOD crop insurance to continue to be able to provide for the rest of our population. Please realize, farmers do not set the pricing for their products, the commodity market DOES. Many farmers today have seen their crops bring in less money then it costs to produce them. Again, without some form of subsidy many crops and farms would fall by the wayside costing us all more and eventually depleting the market. Also a farmer is not one who does not work, on the contrary! It is an extremely demanding and dangerous job that requires skill, knowledge and an incredible work ethic. The farmer knows they are responsible for feeding the masses, providing fibers for materials and forestry for everything from home building to diaper stuffing!

While the farm bill sits unattended to in Washington DC, all of this hangs in the balance! I do not agree with all that is in the bill, the Farm Bill and Food Stamps SHOULD NOT BE IN THE SAME BILL, Food stamps should be under HHS, (Health and Human Services), but that will have to be dealt with at a later date when our nation’s farms are not in such peril. If you care about food, I urge you to contact your US Senator and Representative personally.

God made Adam the first care-taker of the Garden of Eden. He was the first “farmer”. We have a responsibility to be good stewards with the land that has been provided. We should be helping our farmers provide to their full potential, we should be encouraging new farmers to get into the field, and we should be offering incentives that will benefit our entire population in the abundance of food, fiber and forestry. How terrible it would be to depend on other countries to grow OUR food. The import of oil surely hasn't worked out so good for us has it?!

Tyker Gonzales
Cove City, NC

Letter to the Editor: Old MacDonald lost his farm……

November 25th

Letter to the Editor

Old MacDonald lost his farm……

Along with January, 2013 fast approaching, so are the current tax structure changes and how they are going to affect our local farms. Currently the death/inheritance tax is 35% on property over $5 million; this will increase to 55% on property over $1 million if nothing is done!

According to Josh Rolph of the CFBF Federal Policy Division (California Farm Bureau Federation) "With our high land values in California, it's easy for a farmer to be hurt by the lower exemption thresholds and be forced to sell portions of the farm to pay the estate tax bill," Rolph said. "Keeping the family farm in the family is critical to sustaining agriculture, and reforming the estate tax is critical to sustaining family farms."

But what about North Carolina? Consider this: For those family farms located next to large metropolitan areas such as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington the property values are MUCH higher than ours, not even taking into account that 1 piece of machinery can cost anywhere from One hundred thousand to upwards of 1 million and several pieces are needed for the entire operations. Then if you look at the acreage these farms must possess to make a profit, one can easily lose their farm altogether!

But how are we in Craven County affected by all this? What impact does this have to us locally? Here are the Agriculture Stats for Congressional Districts 1 and 3 in Craven County. In both Districts, 1 and 3, 19% of all jobs are in agriculture with a 6.0 Billion dollar impact (in each District) and representing 23% of District GDP making both Districts 3rd highest district GDP in the state and the 4th highest in Ag employment.

Craven County as a whole is tied for 5th place in Ag Economic Impact which is NC's #1 industry and 99% of NC farms are family owned!

Farmers do not set their own pricing, the commodity market does. If prices are down, they run risks of not making ends meet and this happens more often than we ever imagined.

All of this is not to mention that taxes were paid when the farms were purchased, taxes were paid when the equipment was purchased, each year property taxes are paid on the equipment and land, out buildings and grain bins, tobacco barns and lean-to's, year after year......then when they die it gets one giant tax again and then to be taxed to the next owner.......this is MORE THEN double taxation....!

Families are already having a hard time of it with the way it stands now! Last years drought followed by hurricane Irene devastated Craven County’s farms. This years continuous rains and now the possibility of a massive inheritance tax……we will be saying good-bye to the smaller family owned farms once and for all and they will be forced to sell the equipment and land to pay the taxes.

Lastly, Only 210,000 Americans are responsible for Eighty Percent of the US Ag Production. By the year 2050 the projected population for the planet is 9 Billion. These 210,000 people are our only lifeline to feeding the generations to come!

They need our help NOW. Please contact our elected representatives and request that they support the Farm Bill by the extension of the Bush tax cuts. The small farmer is a true representative of initiative and self-determination; he helps feed our Nation.

CCTA Member, Lou Call
New Bern, NC

Only in Washington--The Farm Bill

For those of us who are not schooled in the ways of Washington, here is a glimpse into the duplicity of the “budget savings” as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations.

House Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas has raised hopes that Congress might still be able to produce a multi-year farm bill soon, possibly as part of a package to block impending tax increases and spending cuts. Lucas says Speaker John A. Boehner has indicated that the billions of savings over 10 years that a farm bill provides makes it an attractive option for legislation to avoid a combination of budget sequester and across-the-board spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff. The chairman had no details on timing, but people following the legislation say movement would have to occur by the first week of December.

Let’s do some rudimentary math. The last farm bill, which was enacted in 2008, authorized $604 billion in spending. The current House bill proposed by Lucas (HR 6083) authorizes $957 billion in spending extrapolated over 10 years. Yet, this 58% increase is considered a cut in ‘Washington speak’ because the phony CBO baseline, which locks in Obama’s food stamp spending, projects $992 billion in spending. Hence, passage of the farm bill, which locks in the record food stamp spending and creates new farm welfare programs, will be scored as a spending cut – to the extent that it can be used for the spending cut side of the ‘grand bargain.’

CONTINUED:  http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/26/only-in-washington/

Waiting in the wings is the Farm Bill.....

Waiting in the wings is the Farm Bill; I know, you don't own a farm so why should you be concerned?


Consider what follows:
If the Farm Bill is not passed this session this is what will happen:

The current death/inheritance tax is 35% on property over $5 million.

If nothing is done, it will increase to 55% on property over $1 million.

For those family farms located next to large metropolitan areas such as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington the property values are MUCH higher then ours, not even taking into account that 1 piece of machinery can cost anywhere from One hundred thousand to upwards of 1 million and several pieces are needed for the entire operations. Then if you look at the acreage these farms must possess to make a profit, one can easily lose their farm altogether! IF something is not done in this lame duck session, all who have worked so hard, some working 365 days a year sun up to sun down planning to leave their way of life to their children, all will be lost. Families are already having a hard time of it with the way it stands now! We will be saying good-bye to the smaller family owned farms once and for all because they will sell the equipment and land to pay the taxes.

All of this is not to mention that taxes were paid when the farms were purchased, taxes were paid when the equipment was purchased, each year property taxes are paid on the equipment and land, out buildings and grain bins, tobacco barns and lean-to's, year after year......then when they die it gets one giant tax again and then to be taxed to the next owner.......this is MORE THEN double taxation....!

Farmers do not set their own pricing, the commodity market does. If prices are down, they run risks of not making ends meet and this happens more often then we ever imagined.

If you were to look at Craven County through Congressional Districts 1 and 3 here are the Agriculture Stats:

Dist.1-
19% of all jobs
6.0 BILLION in impact
23% of District GDP
3rd highest district GDP in the state
4th highest in Ag employment

Dist. 3-
20% of jobs
16% of district GDP
6 BILLION in impact
4th highest district GDP in the state
3rd in Ag employment

Craven county as a whole is tied for 5th place in Ag Economic Impact which is NC's #1 industry and 99% of NC farms are family owned!

The "sale" of these lands turning them into residential areas will require water, sewer, electrical (utility hook-ups), more city and county personnel...(law enforcement etc.) to manage these areas as populations increase. As the government manpower and services increase, SO DOES OUR TAXATION!

Farmland is beneficial in so many ways, the obvious food, fiber and forestry it supplies, the lack of government needed to manage it, and the inclusion it provides for our military in practicing maneuvers & flyovers-(the military is NC's 2nd biggest industry!). Governments think more housing, more taxpayers, ....but the truth is, open spaces save taxpayers!

Finally, Food security is important to national security in many ways.....when we (or a portion of the country) is unable to grow food due to natural disasters, most recently droughts, we depend on other parts of the country supplying us and visa-versa. When no-one is able to meet the demand it puts or dependence once again on other countries, you see how well that is working with oil don't you?!

Lastly, Only 210,000 Americans are responsible for EIGHTY PERCENT of the US Ag Production. By the year 2050 the projected population for the planet is 9 BILLION. These 210,000 people are our only lifeline to feeding the generations to come!

Statistical information is available through the NC Farm Bureau

Source: USDA/NASS and Dr. Mike Walden, NCSU

YOU can make a difference by contacting:

Senator Richard Burr
Ph:  202-224-3154; Fax:  Fax: (202) 228-2981

217 Russell Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510


Senator Kay Hagan
Ph:  202-224-6342; Fax:  202-228-2563

521 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC District 3)
Ph: 202-225-3415; Fax: 202-225-3286

2333 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

G.K. Butterfield (NC District 1)
Ph:  202-225-3101; Fax: (202) 225-3354

2305 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Ask them to pass the FARM BILL!!  Remember phone calls are good, written letters have even more impact!

Doggy glitter gets a share of farm bill billions

What does sparkly styling spray for dogs have to do with the 2012 farm bill?

It's among the thousands of products U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing through little-known programs that have been embedded in the farm legislation for decades and that lawmakers are now fighting to extinguish. The list of recipients of farm bill subsidies is long and sometimes laughable. There's money to study the healthfulness of peas and lentils. There are programs that support popcorn producers and winemakers. There's even a subsidy to encourage bird watching. "I know that mothers all over America, that have advocated for their children to eat their peas, will be pleased to know that there is a study that is going to cost them $25 million to study peas, lentils and garbanzo beans," Sen. John McCain deadpanned on the Senate floor last week.


CONTINUED:  http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/doggy-glitter-gel-gets-share-farm-bill-billio/604981?utm_source=WP%20TEMPLATE:%20Political%20Digest%20-%2006/18/2012&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Political%20Digest