John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary –

As I write this week’s commentary, we still don’t have all the details of the election results.
Here is what we do know. Republicans will maintain control of the Senate. That is a big deal.
Even if Biden does push President Trump out, it will be by a very small margin. And Biden will
have to deal with a Republican controlled Senate. The election numbers are a shock to the
Democratic party. The polls predicted a landslide victory for them. Didn’t happen. Now we will
wait and see where we go from here.

There are some other things going on even though they don’t measure up to the election. President Trump took grey wolves off the list of endangered species. The states will now be handed responsibility of managing some 6,000 wolves. Most of the wolves live in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. There are 1,800 grey wolves in other western states. Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt reminds us – “After more than 45 years as a listed species, the grey wolf has exceeded all conservation goals for recovery.” The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is delighted. Our ranchers can kill these wolves that have been killing our baby calves. These wolves have been killing our sheep and lambs also. After all of these years, at last our farmers and ranchers have government support. I can see no value in protecting these wolves. But you can be sure some conservation groups will take this to Court.

Another issue – with a politically divided Congress we will be in a better position to block
extreme legislation that the left wants to pass. Senator Grassley warns that farm groups need to
push back against a Senate bill that would ban gas powered cars after 2035. “It is an extreme
government overreach.” University of Tennessee says that would result in a $27 billion drop in
farm income. We have been hearing some criticism about U.S. farm subsidies. Here are some
facts – world ag subsidies exceed $700 billion. Because of the trade war and coronavirus our
numbers have jumped up. Still South Korea, Japan, China and EU pay out more as a percent of
their farm revenue. Unfortunately, poor countries don’t have the money to support their farms.

Until next week, this John Block reporting from Washington, D.C. If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go on-line to www.johnblockreports.com.