The Peanut Farmers and The Nuts

We keep hearing the Conservatives talk about the "porkbarrel spending" bythe Democrats  in the recently approved "U.S. Troop Readiness,Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007" bill.

The legislation was for $124 billion. $100 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistanwars, and $24 billion was pork barrel spending?, well not exactly. See, whatwe're not told is everything that's included in the $24 billion worth of"earmarks" included in the bill.

From the Washington Post:

The $124 billion legislation includes more than $100 billion for the wars inIraq and Afghanistan, plus billions more than Bush requested for combatequipment and training, for military housing and health care, to address theflaws in mental health care, brain trauma treatment and other issues thatsurfaced in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal. Billions more wereadded for veterans' care, agricultural assistance and drought relief, homelandsecurity, and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery

Listening to the"anti pork" conservatives would have you believe that the $24 billionwas for peanut storage and spinach, as you can clearly see that isn't the case(truth) at all. And what about the peanut storage, spinach and the rest of theagriculture earmarks ? To understand is only a click away.

TheSouthwest Farmers Press: There is an abundance of information onthis site about our countries agriculture industry.

John Harrell has grown peanuts on his farm inWhigham, Ga., since 1974. He says, “In 2002, we had just come off severalconsecutive years of drought-plagued poor crops; we were about to lose thepeanut program and things looked bleak. We had to change and we did. Now, we area hiccup away from a different farm crisis that will take many farmers out of  business. 

Florida grower Michael Davis says if farmers are required to pick up the cost ofstorage and handling, it will push prices to $300 or less, and under suchconditions he would not grow peanuts next year. Other members of a grower panel,which presented their input for the 2007 farm bill, offered similar direpredictions for peanut growers.

The peanut farmers were introuble due to drought, growing more peanuts gave them the insurance theyneeded, however in doing so it created a storage problem. As silly as"peanut storage" may sound when presented by a sarcastic conservativecommentator, it becomes a more serious issue when you have an understanding ofwhat it is and why it is needed.

If these earmarks weren't putinto this bill, chances are they never would have passed in a  "standalone" bill. And it is hard to disagree with the need of these additionalfunds for our country's agriculture industry. And lets not forget that peach ofan earmark from the republicans "TheBridge to Nowhere" . $231 million to connect Ketchikan, AL (pop.8,000) to Gravina Island (pop. 50 in 2000).

NewsHounds has a FOX news segment with the video of Hannity being his Fair& Balanced self about the pork spending. It's the dishonesty that isspewed from the conservatives regarding the "pork" that bothers me.There is some interesting information in this post.