POLITICS – The Art of the 'Tolerable But Less Than Desirable'

[katqanna]

POLITICS – The Art of the 'Tolerable But Less Than Desirable' by Ron Moody

Ron asked me to post this for him (he's forgotten his password).

Here in Montana we have no state-level equivalent to the massive federal farm bill which will spend $956.4 billion tax dollars over the next decade while spreading the dough over dozens of diverse programs. Our Big Sky resource decisions come in smaller packages but greater numbers. Any point in time we find us debating a Forest Service or BLM management plan, or a Fish and Wildlife regulation, or some critter controversy such as those surrounding Sage Grouse, Wolves or Bison – and all this comes before the Legislature convenes...

As an example, the ‘Sodbuster’ program is one element of the Farm Bill championed by hunting groups. Sodbuster imposes a conservation discipline on farmers who enroll in the new Crop Insurance program expanded in this Bill. The standard federal subsidy for these insurance premiums is 60 percent. A farmer who plows under native grassland, however, will now see his or her insurance subsidy drop to 15 percent. {Punishment by reduction of reward seems to be about as bad as it gets for ag interests.}

Farm groups view this discipline as the end of life as they know it - while also cheering for the expanded insurance subsidy. Conservationists, meanwhile, are well pleased that Sodbuster finally made it into law - while also bewailing the fact that Sodbuster applies to only six states instead of all states.