Thursday, September 10, 2009

A win for Iowa, a loss for ag caps

Harkin (surprisingly) is replacing Kennedy as chair of the Health and Labor. Combined with his position on Appropriations, Harkin is now one of the most powerful senators.

He's giving up the chair of the Ag committee and with it go any hopes of reducing the ridiculous government subsidies for super-large farmers. Harkin and Grassley have been working in bipartisan fashion to limit government subsidies to a mere $250,000. With Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture there was a chance it could have passed this spring.

Nah, the powers of the southerners is too great in congress. It's their cotton farmers pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars each and every year. With the new chair being Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas there's no chance there will be reform in this area anymore.

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What will be Harkin's input on healthcare? He's a big proponent of preventative healthcare. So look for incentives in that direction.

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