10/14/08 What Do the Candidates Say?

What Do the Candidates Say? I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Regardless of which way you plan to vote next month, this will be a historic election year. Both candidates have been fairly outspoken on many issues. But what about the issues that matter to us in rural communities most? The Farm Foundation held a forum and asked the two sides to talk about their campaign with respect to agriculture. Representatives from each camp took part. Former Ag Secretary, John Block represented John McCain while former Assistant Secretary of Ag, Jim Webster stood for the Obama campaign. Each was given 15 minutes for an opening statement. Today we start with John Block for McCain. BLOCK: John McCain does want to keep the tax cuts in place including the Capital Gains tax and Obama wants to raise it. Estate tax. The estate tax that Obama is supporting would give the family a $3 million dollar exemption and the rest is going to be taxed at 45 or 50%, whatever is the highest rate. And Senator McCain wants it to move to an exemption of $10 million, not 3 and the rate will be 15%. McCain gets criticized because he vetoed farm bills. I think we're all in this business together of agriculture and we know that everything but the kitchen sink is in these farm bills and 80% of the money doesn't even go to farm programs. It goes to a lot of important things, yes, but we can't keep just shoveling money out the door and John McCain has never liked the way this farm bill was put together. Now Jim Webster for Obama. WEBSTER: Last month in a letter to Pennsylvania Farm Bureau President and in a phrase that has been repeated in other statements that the Senator has made and the campaign has issued, he said this to the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, "I will restore the basic principal that government decisions should be based on the best available, scientifically valid evidence and not on the ideological predispositions of agency officials or political appointees." That was music to my ears. But the question really I think you are interested in is not so much why I'm impressed but why people in agriculture and rural America are impressed and will support him. Details of why he is the better choice would use up the rest of the 15 minutes that the Farm Foundation has allotted so I'm going to just do them in headline form, I think starting with the Farm Bill. Not just farm programs, specialty crop assistance, rural development, conservation, nutrition; Obama supported it vigorously. Tomorrow we will continue our look at agriculture and the presidential campaigns. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.