John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by thc Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all rriends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today's commentary.

On March 27th, my commentary was about John McCain and his position on thc issues that we care about. Today, it is Barack Obama under the microscope.

And here we go --

Farm Policy -- we don't have a lot of history on Obama here, however he said he would have voted lor the Farm Bill that just passed. Did you notice -John McCain said he would have voted against it too expensive.

Trade -- the strong arm of Speaker Nancy Pelosi has slammed the door on trade. I was disappointed to sec Obama join in the attack on trade agreements. The Colombia and Korean free trade agrecments could mean billions in U.S. farm exports. Obama wants to re-write the North American Free Trade Agreement. We can't be doing things like that and have any international credibility.

Immigration -- I don't really think John McCain and Baraek Obama are very far apart on this issue. 110th say, "close the border and a path to citizenship."

Appointment of Judges -- Obama's judges would, without question, be more liberal than thc selections or John McCain. What is even more important, with a likely Democratic Congress, they would be casily contirmed. McCain' s would not.

Global Warming -- not a lot of difference here. Can't say Tagree with either candidate.

Iraq -- Barack Obama wants to bring the troops home -the sooner the better. I think he really wants to see the stabilization effort through longer, but the liberal left of his paI1y wants out now!

Government Spending -- We don't have enough money to do all the things Obama wants to do. The Jist is too long and too expensive to cover here. He wants to spend 150 billion dollars on a "green energy plan," 65 billion on a universal health insurance plan. We know that is just the beginning. It will cost a lot more than that.

Obama talks about "change." I'm not sure I know what that means unless he is talking about bigger government, more regulation, and more spending. If he is elected, he will have a very difficult time of uniting the country and the Congress unless he can move to the middle and ignore the loud mouth left just as John McCain will face the same problem with his right.

Until next week, I am John Block from Washington.