Wisconsin senator one of eight to oppose Farm Bill

Talk about it

Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson was one of only eight U.S. senators who tried to stop the Senate’s version of the 2012 Farm Bill from reaching the floor of that chamber for consideration.

The Senate voted 90 to 8 yesterday to send the federal farm policy package to the floor for a debate and a consideration of amendments that could take several weeks.

Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl voted with the majority that let the bill proceed.

There was no immediate word on why Johnson tried to block the package. Among other things, it would cut spending on federal farm programs by almost $24 billion over a decade, mostly in direct payments to farmers.

There have been disagreements on various parts of the Farm Bill, mainly by geographic lines. Lawmakers from the South said it hurts the safety net for peanut and rice farmers, while favoring Midwest crops like corn and soybeans.

The Brownfield Ag News Service says the dairy industry remains divided on parts of the Dairy Security Act that’s in the Farm Bill.

Some say a supply management control would discourage investments in dairy growth, and possibly make the U.S. an unreliable supplier on the world market. Others say the plan doesn’t do enough to secure the incomes and futures of dairy farmers.

Costly recall

Some Wisconsin election observers say we’ll see more big-money political races, but it could be some time before we see another governor’s contest in which $80 million is spent.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimated Thursday that $80 million was spent on the governor’s recall battle that Republican Scott Walker survived on Tuesday. That’s more than twice the previous record set in the 2010 governor’s race.

Mike McCabe of the Democracy Campaign said much of the late spending was done by national groups who tried to get the vote to fit their agendas. But it didn’t have much of an impact here. Exit polls showed that 86 percent of voters made up their minds over a month before the election.

In the end, other polls showed that as little as two percent were undecided, while special interests kept spending millions on ads to try and influence them.

An estimated $47 million was spent on behalf of Walker, according to McCabe, while about $19 million was spent to support Democratic challenger Tom Barrett. Other spending yet to be reported will likely push the total figure over $80 million, McCabe said.

Democrats say Walker’s large funding advantage is why Tom Barrett lost by seven points. Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski said it allowed the governor to “muddy the waters” on his jobs record, budget cuts and his possible involvement in alleged corruption by his former aides in the Milwaukee County executive’s office.

But Marquette pollster Charles Franklin said that if money was such a big factor, Walker would have had a much bigger lead in the polls.

Franklin said that if all the negative ads had any effect, it was more on Barrett’s favorable ratings, which dropped from a statewide high of 35 percent in the Marquette polls in January and February.

Tags: news, government, agriculture