Minnesota in the News, Feb. 1
Part I: Election 2008, Farm Subsidies
Lots of Minnesota related news today, so this will be a series of short takes in several parts:
Robert Novak reports on the 2008 Senate race and the 1st Congressional District race in his Feb. 1 edition of the Evans-Novak Political Report. Conclusions? Novak terms Coleman "perhaps the most endangered incumbent senator in 2008" and says that Gutknecht won't be running to regain his seat as he is selling "his well-located Capitol Hill condo and leav[ing] everything behind -- including all of his furniture and even his Select Comfort bed."
Bush wants to cut off farm subsidies to those earning more than $200,000 in adjusted gross income. Democrats have been proposing such a ceiling for years; Paul Wellstone was a particularly vocal advocate of subsidy reform. Yet this puts Minnesota congressman Collin Peterson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, in a precarious position. Peterson, a conservative Democrat, has long been a champion for farmers at all income levels, and has unabashedly said he supports earmarks, which he claims his primarily rural district needs in order to get funding for its miles of open country roads.
This would put him in somewhat of a conflict to his fellow congressman, newcomer Tim Walz, also a member of the Agriculture Committee. Walz's district relies heavily on an agricultural base as well, and part of his successful campaign strategy in 2006 was to call for accountability in congressional earmarks.
Knowing these two men — and Minnesota's mood — a compromise with the President and Republicans will hopefully be struck to support farmers who work their own lands, but one that aces out absentee landowners who've been living off the farm subsidy gravy train for far too long. And even though there are four Minnesotans heavily involved in the Agricultural Committees — Oberstar and Walz in the House, Coleman and Klobuchar in the Senate — don't discount the powerful farming interests in the West and South, which may be totally opposed to any major reform.
Meanwhile, folks in Australia and Europe are chiming in on the issue. In Australia, Bush's plan gets one thumb up and one thumb down from Trade Minister Warren Truss. The Europeans, however, are a little more nonplussed.
More to come....
Lots of Minnesota related news today, so this will be a series of short takes in several parts:
Robert Novak reports on the 2008 Senate race and the 1st Congressional District race in his Feb. 1 edition of the Evans-Novak Political Report. Conclusions? Novak terms Coleman "perhaps the most endangered incumbent senator in 2008" and says that Gutknecht won't be running to regain his seat as he is selling "his well-located Capitol Hill condo and leav[ing] everything behind -- including all of his furniture and even his Select Comfort bed."
Bush wants to cut off farm subsidies to those earning more than $200,000 in adjusted gross income. Democrats have been proposing such a ceiling for years; Paul Wellstone was a particularly vocal advocate of subsidy reform. Yet this puts Minnesota congressman Collin Peterson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, in a precarious position. Peterson, a conservative Democrat, has long been a champion for farmers at all income levels, and has unabashedly said he supports earmarks, which he claims his primarily rural district needs in order to get funding for its miles of open country roads.
This would put him in somewhat of a conflict to his fellow congressman, newcomer Tim Walz, also a member of the Agriculture Committee. Walz's district relies heavily on an agricultural base as well, and part of his successful campaign strategy in 2006 was to call for accountability in congressional earmarks.
Knowing these two men — and Minnesota's mood — a compromise with the President and Republicans will hopefully be struck to support farmers who work their own lands, but one that aces out absentee landowners who've been living off the farm subsidy gravy train for far too long. And even though there are four Minnesotans heavily involved in the Agricultural Committees — Oberstar and Walz in the House, Coleman and Klobuchar in the Senate — don't discount the powerful farming interests in the West and South, which may be totally opposed to any major reform.
Meanwhile, folks in Australia and Europe are chiming in on the issue. In Australia, Bush's plan gets one thumb up and one thumb down from Trade Minister Warren Truss. The Europeans, however, are a little more nonplussed.
More to come....
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