John Block Reports from Washington

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—

It seems like the whole world is in turmoil. Look at Egypt and all of the Middle East – riots in the streets and dictators trying to hold their power. Turn to Europe where the debt burden in Greece and Ireland and maybe Spain threaten the Euro and European stability. Here in the U.S., we have cities on the verge of bankruptcy; and states such as California, Illinois, and New York that haven’t balanced their checkbook in years. The biggest spender of all is our own federal government, which has grown to twice the size it was 10 years ago.

President Obama acknowledged that we have a “mountain of debt.” He offered to freeze spending but never mentioned cutting spending, never suggested shrinking the size of government. The President missed his chance to lead.

I’m not ready to give up hope. Perhaps the President wants the Republicans to make the tough decisions and shoulder the political heat. He might be ready to reluctantly join them in supporting a grand plan fashioned after the Bipartisan Commission recommendations. To address our debt problem now and not wait would be good for the country and good for agriculture.

We don’t want to go down the road of Greece. We don’t want to burden our children with more debt. Our national debt totals $45,000 for every man, woman, and child now. Our national economy is improving with the ag industry leading. Prices of cattle, hogs, corn, soy beans, wheat, and cotton are all strong. We are on the high road with agriculture and rural America lifting us out of the recession.

Let’s not allow our elected political leaders to sit on their hands, ignoring our problems – putting our recovery at risk. We are already hearing the whining and crying from different groups afraid that Uncle Sam will no longer be their “sugar daddy.”

We need to get on top of our debt problem now. It’s time to stop “kicking the can down the road.” It’s like any business when the bank won’t loan you any more money – you are in trouble. When China decides it’s not going to loan us any more money, then it’s too late.

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.