Boxer plays politics with the farm bill

For some reason, Sen. Barbara Boxer is beginning to sound like Richard Pombo when talking about the Farm Bill of 2007. It looks as if she thinks it is necessary to win over the California Farm Bureau for the Democrats just to stay in office. I have news for Sen. Boxer. It isn't going to happen.

The Center for Rural Affairs, based in Nebraska, makes a case for this bi-partisan farm bill that everyone should pay attention to. We squander a lot of money on irrational farm subsidies each year and I am not talking about a few family farmers. The biggest share of that money goes to the large corporate farms.

Boxer and the California Democratic Party care nothing for the family farm. They care nothing for the middle class, for the small town business that is getting squeezed in to bankruptcy by the power that corporate America has over our government.

The following is an update from the Center for Rural Affairs that I received just this afternoon. Please read it. Then, we need to let the family farm owners understand that there is only one party that hears what they say and that party's color is Green.

In August, we asked you to contact Senator Barbara Boxer in support of strong payment limits. Despite the efforts of many Californians, Senator Boxer continues to publicly oppose this common-sense, bipartisan reform. Senator Dianne Feinstein has not publicly announced her position on payment limits. Soon the Senate will vote on the 2007 Farm Bill.

California's Senators need to hear from Californians who support farm programs that work for all of California, not farm programs that provide an unfair advantage to a few mega-farms. How your Senators vote will have decisive influence over the future of rural America.

On the key issues of Farm Bill subsidy reform, your Senators have a choice. They can support a Farm Bill that finally closes the loopholes and ends million-dollar payments to the nation's largest farms, or they can stand by while others push for a status-quo bill that will continue the unlimited payments that subsidize the destruction of family farms and rural communities.

Your Senators need to hear that you want them to support a farm bill that closes the loopholes and places a strict limit on farm program payments.

Rather then supporting corporate agri-businesses interests, the Farm Bill should support family farmers, ranchers and rural communities. By acting today, you can tell your Senators that the Farm Bill should support the values of hard work, fairness and genuine economic opportunity. It should not provide the largest farms in the country with money to drive their family farm neighbors out of business.

Powerful interests are pressuring your Senators to pass another status-quo bill that continues the unlimited payments. By taking action today, you can fight back.

Use this link to take action online today.

Thank you for taking action. You can follow the unfolding debate at our Blog for Rural America, and in the coming weeks we will let you know when you can make a difference by writing again.