Election Results

November 4, 2010

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

And now for today’s commentary—

The voters have spoken loud and clear. Let’s hope our Congress and the Obama Administration were listening.

We have seen big game changing elections before. In 1980, Ronald Reagan swept into office with a Republican Senate. The voters were sending a message. They didn’t like sky high interest rates. They didn’t like high unemployment. They didn’t like expensive gasoline. Farmers were furious about President Jimmy Carter’s grain embargo. President Carter had embargoed our grain exports to the Soviet Union – our biggest customer. As the Secretary of Agriculture, convincing President Reagan to lift that embargo was my most pressing challenge. He did lift it. But the other problems we faced took longer to fix. However, President Reagan and the Congress worked together to fix them too.

Let’s hope the new Congress (both parties) understand the message –

less government
less taxes
jobs
get the work done

This time around, the ag industry is not concerned about high interest rates or trade embargoes. They want the government to back off. Don’t let EPA run over us or steal our property rights. Forget about cap and trade and CO2 regulations. Don’t try to tell us what to do if we want to drain a pond or fix a little creek on our farm. What is this about a new regulation that will require us to give a 1099 to any person or company where we spent $600? Maybe you haven’t heard about it. You will. Stay tuned.

The nanny state is going wild. Is Secretary Vilsack pushing to get our trade agreements passed? We know our farm programs will be cut. But we don’t want to be singled out. There isn’t that much money there anyway.

We know that there are forces in the Obama Administration that don’t share production agriculture’s vision and priorities. Just as the farm voters wanted me to fight for agriculture in the Cabinet and the White House as I did, today’s ag industry expects the same from Secretary Vilsack.

The voters have delivered a blunt, clear message to big government. Let’s monitor the response and hold their feet to the fire. There will be another election in 2 years.

In closing, I would encourage you to access my website which archives my radio commentaries dating back 10 years and will go back 20 years when complete. Check on what I said back then. Go to www.johnblockreports.com.

Until next week, I am John Block in Washington.