Ripple effects feared from drought

Don Klein of McCook is concerned about the future of agriculture producers in the Plains states.

Klein told U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne the agricultural community is looking at losing 20-25 percent of its population. "People are going out of business in the Central United States," he said.

If agricultural producers are hoping for a drought relief package that won't affect the Farm Bill signed by President George W. Bush earlier this year, they're probably in for a disappointment, Osborne told a group of about 60 people at a town hall meeting in McCook, Tuesday afternoon.

"The President took a real beating for signing the Farm Bill," Osborne said.

"He was labeled as a sell-out to Midwest farmers and ranchers. When the drought disaster aid came along, he wasn't as willing to go along as people had hoped."

Osborne said the word he received from the White House was that the base-line of the U.S. budget would not be raised to assist in drought disaster relief.

Members of the House of Representatives then began looking at the Farm Bill line by line to see if there was money available in it.

"The White House suggested using money from Rural Economic Development," but, Rep. Osborne said, "We need Rural Economic Development to survive."

Members of the House then wrote a bill which would have cost $3.6 billion and would have been taken from the surplus of funds from the 2002 Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill allowed for $19 million in incentive payments in 2002, but because of the drought and the resulting increase in crop prices, a surplus of about $6 billion resulted.

The move hit a roadblock when the Congressional Budget Office said the money could not be taken from the Farm Bill since it was based on averages and not actual costs. "They told us, 'We don't do budgeting that way.'"

"The president has done some good things, but we are at cross purposes on drought assistance," Osborne said.

Pam Potthoff, president of Women Involved in Farm Economics, told Osborne, "We consider you the Moses that will lead us out of this."

"We have already seen the drought and the grasshoppers, the next plague will be the plague of foreclosures and bankruptcies. You have been to see the Pharaoh once, now we're going to send you back."

In conversation this morning, Klein, the owner of Klein's Motor and Electric, posed the question, "What kind of ripple effect will this drought have across the country?"

Klein said the current administration is depending on economic development to help displaced farmers. "They believe we can move farmers to the city and put them to work, but at the age of farmers today, there aren't enough Wal-Marts to put all of 'em to work."

Instead of responding directly to a question about the current situation of area farmers, Klein led a visitor to his bulletin board and pointed to several farm auction bills posted there.

"Does that answer your question?" he asked.