You Reap What You Sow!

[Ryder911]

Farmers Who Backed Bush Upset With Budget
Thu Feb 17, 2:59 AM ET Business - AP
By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer

TOLEDO, Ohio - Some farmers from battleground election states who campaigned and voted for President Bush say they are not happy about proposed cuts in federal farm subsidies and other agriculture programs.

"We wouldn't call it a double-cross or anything like that, but I don't think this is going to sit real well," said Harold Bateson, whose family's grain farm covers 2,300 acres in northwest Ohio near Bowling Green.

The president has proposed an across-the-board cut of 5 percent for all farm payments and a reduction in the cap on individual subsidies to $250,000. The cuts would total $2.5 billion — more than reductions in health, housing and law enforcement.

Some farmers say they understand the need to balance the budget, but believe they have been burdened with an unfair portion of the budget reductions compared to other programs.

"It's kind of a slap in the face," said Neil Clark, an Ohio grain farmer who worked to gather support among farmers for Bush's campaign in Hancock County.

In Ohio and other key election states, conservatives in small towns and farm communities went to the polls for Bush. In rural Ohio, the vote helped negate Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites)'s advantage in the state's big cities.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has defended the cuts in government subsidies, saying most of the money was going to only a handful of large agribusiness corporations, rather than small family farms.

And not all farmers are angry with Bush over the proposed cuts.

Richard Clemens, a cattle farmer from Marshall, Mo., who volunteered with the Bush campaign, agreed that farm families are not getting big government payouts anyway.

Despite the proposal, Clemens said he does not expect the president to suffer much political backlash in the farm community.

"Sometimes these huge farm payments have given agriculture more of a black eye than they've helped us," he said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&ncid=509&e=33&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_bi_ge/farm_scene

[FreedomAngel82]

1. Maybe now they'll learn

who to trust with their money. As Mr. Dean said in his DNC acceptance speech: you can't trust republicans with your money. I know not all republicans are like that, but if it's a race where a democrat is a canidate I'd go for the democrat before I would the republican.

[coloradodem2005]

2. Tough shit for them.

You don't think of it as a betrayal? You should. He has lied to you and stabbed you in the back from the very first day he took office. Wake up.

[applegrove]

3. When you vote you need to 1) feel 2) think - not in that order

[Warpy]

4. Oh, cry me a river

and then jump into it and drown. You voted for this shit, now you have to live with it.

Small farmers have never gotten much payout, so this is largely symbolic for them. Agribusiness, a HUGE GOP supporter, is going to take this one squarely on the chin unless Congress gets into it (which they probably will). Agribusiness will get welfare. Small farmers won't.

Let's hope this wakes a few of those gawd, guns and gay morons up to the extent they've been manipulated into voting against their interests.

I wouldn't count on it, though.

[DBoon]

5. homos can't marry

they should be happy. This election was all about traditional values, right?

[Canuckistanian]

6. He did the same with First Responders

Praised them to the skies right after 9/11, quietly cut them off at the knees a few months later.
The Chimp does his dirtiest work when the spotlights are turned off.

[rkc3]

7. And don't forget the military - we'll take care of them for two minutes...

then fuck 'em. Huge VA cuts and long waiting lists for injured Iraqi vets (not to mention how they've skewered any veteran running for office as a Democrat).

[Brewman_Jax]

8. They're shocked that Bush* screwed them over?

But gays can't get married and Bush* touts their "moral" values, isn't that what counts? Then, they don't have any reason to whine, right? :shrug: