Say Anything Blog

Sigh...

KFYR - The Senate approved an emergency appropriations bill including $4 billion in agriculture disaster relief.

But it wasn`t easy. North Dakota Senators say the ag disaster amendment survived some threats on the Senate floor.

If the entire bill passes, it will bring an estimated $170 million to North Dakota farmers, which Senators say will be good for the state`s economy. . . .

"This is an exciting victory for us here in the Senate," says Senator Byron Dorgan. "The Senate passed the farm disaster aid today, passed it as part of a larger bill."

Senator Kent Conrad says, "I have had three farmers in my last trip home, three farmers at two different meetings, tell me this was their last year. Anybody who doesn`t understand the emergency nature of what`s happened, not only in North Dakota but in other states outside the Gulf states as well just hasn`t been paying much attention."

The next step is for the bill to go to conference committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

President Bush recently issued a veto threat against the bill, saying the primary funds of the bill are for the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina relief.

A few things worth noting here:

Back when Congress was wrangling over the national budget Kent "Budget Hawk" Conrad accused the President/Republicans of creating a budget "only a debt lover could love." After making that statement the Senator went on to propose or support an additional $144 billion in appropriations, and here he is again getting all giddy about being able to sneak in another $4 billion in spending into legislation that is supposed to be about funding Katrina relief and the war in Iraq.

Apparently, Senator Conrad is only a "budget hawk" when he can don that mantle to bash Republicans. The rest of the time he's just a big-government, big-taxing, free-spending liberal.

As for $177 million North Dakota farmers will be getting, is it good for our economy? Probably. But you know what would be better? If big-government people like Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan would stop taxing the hell out of us only to redistribute our own money back to us.