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 healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary -

There is no shortage of issues to talk about here in Washington, D.C. President Trump and the Republican Party are adamant that the FBI and the Justice Department acted in a very unfair and perhaps illegal way in trying to make sure President Trump would not get elected in 2016. Democrats were shocked when he won. Now, we have information that may confirm the Republican argument. It’s too soon to know for sure, but I think the American people have a right to know what really happened. Stay tuned.

We have other serious questions that need to be answered. First, we haven’t funded the Federal government through this year. We have no budget for next year. Stop-gap spending bills are not the answer. Right wing Republicans want $80 billion more for defense spending. I think that is too much. Democrats want almost that much increased for domestic spending. We will just have to borrow it and add to our debt. We face a government shutdown now unless Congress raises the spending caps.

All of these money conflicts get tangled up with immigration policy. President Trump offered up a compromise proposal that I thought was very reasonable. The proposal offers a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents. In fact, the President offered to double the number qualified beyond the number President Obama protected.

Of course, in exchange for his Dreamer concession, the President wants $25 billion to secure the U.S.-Mexican border – including the wall. He also wants language to put an end to “chain migration” and the “lottery” system of authorizing immigrants into the country. I found it interesting that when President Trump offered his compromise, the Washington Post newspaper (not a supporter of Trump) wrote in their lead editorial that Trump’s offer was generous and should be accepted. Where do we go from here? We need a compromise.

All of this political conflict and budget uncertainty has made it impossible to move ahead with the new farm bill. We need the spending bill to find out how much money we have to spend.

Never a dull moment in this town.

If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go online to www.johnblockreports.com. Have a great weekend.

Until next week, I am John Block from Washington.