Statement from Chris Collins on defeat of farm bill

Mr.Collins maybe if the farm bill was a really farm bill it would of passed..the bill was 80% food stamps and 20% aid to farmers...Separate the two..or call it what it is a food stamp bill.

FYI Mark, Chris Collins supported a 25% reduction in food stamps, it was his and others who insisted on reducing food stamp expeditures that caused the Bill to fail.

Mark I realize that is was democrats who voted it down because of the cuts to food stamps and is was also republican who also voted it down because it didn't cut enough...My point is that they should separate food stamps out of the farm bill..And i think that the is would of passed..The two should be voted on separated....The Republicans control the house..

I do not disagree with you about food stamps and agriculture bill being separate Mark, in fact I know that the only reason why food stamps were added to the Agriculture bills in the first place back years ago was because funding for food stamps on the federal level would not have actually passed if they didn't hold it over the heads of those pushing the basic farm bill. This isn't a Democrat vs Republican thing anymore, rather a liberal vs conservative, and the liberals actually won this battle more than 40 years ago.

There is a political reality though, that is that politicians of either party and even independent politicians from large urban areas will almost always vote against reducing food stamps because it would be political suicide in those constituencies.

Actually that is why large 800-1200 page bills suck. It has always struck me how our entire nation was framed in 18 pages {The Constitution] and since the mid 20th century, (Since FDR) most bill's introductory pages exceed 100, and few bills are less than 500 pages since.

If you think about it, no single issue matters when you get to capital hill, every bill is amended, and amended and amended before it leaves committee and even gets to the floor, where they are amended, then amended and then amended again until what could and should be 4 or 5 paragraphs because 1000 pages of unrelated, and in most cases totally unnecessary additions which dwarf the original intent of the bill.

Not only should food stamps be voted on separately, but probably 25 0r 30 other items in the bill as well. It isn't a sign of ineffectual politicians so much as politicians with purpose being made ineffectual by a bureaucracy larger than the sum of all of our elected officials

But I digress, the reason why I replied to your post is because Collins supports exactly what you suggest, I read it as you blaming him when in fact it is many more urban representatives who blocked it.

I agree MP, either something has merit on its own or it should be buried. These schemes to add my stuff if you want your stuff passed are nothing more than coercion and bribery. There's no honor in the current system. Stick to the issue, solve it and move on. Better yet, just get your stinking fingers out of every pot and let the people run their businesses and lives.

And Mr. Collins, as a member of the House Agriculture Committee, at what point do we actually judge you and your constituents as ineffective paid employees? Waiting for the end of your term seems way too long to hope for something positive to happen while you merrily collect salary and benefits while rallying the 27th to yet another spiral or two or three down the death screw.

It's been a banner month for Genesee County thus far with the gaming industry blocked from expansion and agriculture hung out to dry. Oh wait, we can package yogurt and have a bustling tourist attraction right at the "gateway" to the County! Somehow I think most of our 60,000 or so residents missed their slice of that pie...

Robert, Freshman members of the House are only able to do what the leadership allows them to do, that is true of both parties. A freshman congressman can work his ass off, only to have senior members of the party pull the rug from underneath them.

That in essence is the problem, and that in essence is why the parties are entrenched. I fail to see your correlation here We are caught in a spiral where the 'Vote The Bums Out Syndrome' does nothing but put the opposite party in power to play exactly the same game as the party they replace. So the dart throwing at Collins while making good blotter fodder isn't at all at the root of the problem, He did help craft a bill that would reduce food stamps along with most of the other 17 members on the committee only to be thwarted by the rank file on the floor. His statement shows dismay at the failure of the bill to pass. rather then blame and point the finger there, perhaps the bigger picture should be more the target.

And that is fighting to reduce the size and complexity of the federal government, barking at a guy who believes in just that isn't going to get us there. It just makes some feel good. Until such time as we have a sort of political uprising demanding smaller government nationwide, it really doesn't matter what party or who the representative is. Unfortunately every time such a movement rises it is demonized by the respective established political machines.

You want change, then we need thousands not hundreds marching on Albany, millions not thousands marching on Washington, vitriol against mere representatives isn't going to cut t anymore

As you can see, once you give something to people, "for free", it's hard to take it away. A well meaning program has grown out of control

This thing had a ton of pork in it also.

Collins is no better, or no worse than any other party politician. They all need the boot.

Does anyone know anything about this amendment? Was it something helpful or something hurtful to dairy farmers?

One of the amendments — backed by Boehner — ended production limits on dairy producers that were a part of the underlying bill.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/306857-house-rejects-farm-b…
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After tonight's ball game as I was driving my dad home and heard something that applies to this thread on the radio. I was totally shocked, so shocked that I immediately upon arriving home googled it to see if what I heard is actually what was said.

This is a MUST read article if you are tired of government BS, an important note, this wasn't congress, this is from the discretionary fund at the USDA. And think, school kids still have had their tours of the white house curtailed.

So read it, and if you see what I saw when I read it, I am sure this thread will be a long one

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/20/sen-tom-coburn-tells-fe…

This is the problem inherent in big government bureaucracies, Mark. Whenever their funding is threatened, they always threaten back to cut off rent assistance for the elderly or school lunches for poor children. These agencies almost always never capitulate anything. I'm sure you saw the same thing I did in the military, if there's left over money at the end of the fiscal year, there was a panic to figure out how to spend it, so they didn't get the department's budget chopped next year. I didn't know what a libertarian was back then, but i knew that was wrong, and when I said so, I got a disapproving look from the dept. head and told to stfu from the chief. Reform is not possible. I'm sure most of those items that are still being funded are pet pork projects for some senator or congressman who can exert some pain over the Dept of Ag.

That was my point Dave.

Mark, I am shocked that you are shocked.

Last year, our very own Pepsi/Meuller Yogurt project ranked 24th out of 100 on Sen. Coburn's wasteful list for the following assistance:

The Department of Commerce’s U.S. Economic Development Administration provided a $1 million grant to construct an aquifer-direct water supply system because municipal water is not optimal for the manufacturing process of yogurt products.

The USDA’s Rural Business Enterprise Grant program provided $199,821 to help fund a new access road into the park and $105,500 to upgrade a pump station to increase the park’s wastewater system’s capacity.

That doesn't include all the incentives they received from NYS and our local GCEDC. Sen. Coburn noted in the report that PepsiCo had $66 Billion in net revenues in 2011.

I'm sure that every one of those companies listed in the article you cited have promised to create jobs... just like Pepsi Mueller promises to create 180 jobs here.

The communities where the companies are located will justify the expenditures with the same argument...we're glad the jobs are being created here than elsewhere.

One community's government waste...is another community's job creation.

We have to oppose all of it or none of it. Anything less, IMHO, would just be hypocritical.

Joanne,

The difference here is that the sequestration in place Joanne, That is the point.

What we did in 2012 is actually totally irrelevant although there is still merit to what you said, 2013 brought mandatory spending cuts. Rather then cut things of this nature now, the departments (Which fall under the Executive Branch) We are cutting only things that have a public impact in a blatant attempt to discredit cost cutting.

There is NOTHING HYPOCRITICAL here, these grants were issued post sequestration, NOT last year, again at a time when ALL DEPARTMENTS were directed by congress to cut. It is a totally different situation, that is why I am shocked, if they were authorized and enacted last year I simply would have been just frustrated.'

The real problem is the premise that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT should be the funder of job creating projects, that should be a State Level initiative based on competition between states. That is how this nation was designed

My point has nothing to do with pork projects per se, rather, the Hypocrisy of attempting to legitimately budget in an atmosphere of sequestration when the cabinet level departments continue to apply funds with the same fervor they did prior.

But since you injected Pepsi/Meuller Yogurt project, let me use that example. Meuller was looking to base in the US for pure business reasons, there are 7 dairy states that were competing for that project, now, for any STATE to incentivize by tax credit grant or what ever, would be one thing, and make no mistake if NY did not Wisconsin, California or Texas would have, so in essence that is an expenditure that can be argued, however, knowing that Meuller was going to partner with Pepsi to build a plant in the US, FEDERAL funding was not financing an incentive to lure a business, rather it was as a political tool, and that is pork. Senator Colburn is NOT against incentive expenditures per se, he believes as do I that these issues should be done by the sates to foster competition and not by the Federal government to pick and choose based on politics.

Likewise, if the company seeking $45,000 to advertise Bloody Mary Mix wanted to make the case of job creation, then let them ask the State Of West Virginia were the jobs are to be created, not the tax payers of New York. That is Tom Colburn's point, not just cut for the sake of cutting.

The particular spending issues are not the problem, the culture that is growing that the Federal Government should be funding projects that pertain to particular states is.

Joanne:
"We have to oppose all of it or none of it. Anything less, IMHO, would just be hypocritical."

Amen, sister.

"There is NOTHING HYPOCRITICAL here, these grants were issued post sequestration, NOT last year, again at a time when ALL DEPARTMENTS were directed by congress to cut. It is a totally different situation, that is why I am shocked, if they were authorized and enacted last year I simply would have been just frustrated."

Mark, This particular grant program, USDA VAPG (Value Added Producer Grant) closed in October 2012. The grants WERE authorized and funded in FY2012 with some carryover from FY 2011. The reason they are being issued now, post sequestration, is due to the nature of the grant requirements. Recipients must match grant funds dollar for dollar before they are released and they are given a generous 3 years in which to do it. I suspect that the USDA's explanation to Sen. Coburn's inquiry will be along those lines.

Maybe so Jo Anne,

However, many budget items were approved pre-sequestration and funding was canceled post sequestration, the administration is picking and choosing based on political impact as far as I see.

One thing apparent, we seem to share an admiration of senator Colburn :}