Flinchbaugh on the farm bill process

Farm and Ranch November 14, 2011 Kansas State University ag economist Barry Flinchbaugh was interviewed at the recent annual meeting of the American Bankers Association Ag Bankers Conference. He did not have any kind words for trying to write a new farm bill through the deficit reduction super committee.

Flinchbaugh: “I have been around a long time. First farm bill in 1968 and I have never seen such a mess in my life. There is a very crude term for it that I won‘t use on the air but we used to use when I was a kid and it fits perfectly.”

As for the super committee itself, Flinchbaugh says;

Flinchbaugh: “There is only one person on that super committee that knows a bull from a steer and that is Max Baucus from Montana. That brings a certain amount of comfort. The super committee is not the giants of the Congress. Frankly they are people who the leadership can control. That is why they are there, to be blunt about it.”

Flinchbaugh says agriculture has two options; try to work with the super committee or have a farm bill come up in the House next summer or after the fall elections in a lame duck session.

Flinchbaugh: “Or like happened in 96 the following spring. So we might not get a farm bill until April of 13 perhaps.”

More from Flinchbaugh on the farm bill tomorrow.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.