The Washington Post has a companion piece to today’s story about the Livestock Compensation Program, that tells a very interesting political story.
If not for a tight Senate race in South Dakota in 2002, there might have been no Livestock Compensation Program.
In August 2002, 12 weeks before the election, aides to the Republican candidate, then-Rep. John Thune, were worried about the political fallout from a speech made by President Bush during a visit to Mount Rushmore, with Thune in attendance. The president had pointedly refused to promise ranchers new large-scale federal drought relief, suggesting instead that Congress consider shifting some funds from a recently enacted farm bill.
The president’s tough line undercut Thune’s message that a GOP senator could get more done for the state during a Republican administration than could the Democratic incumbent, Tim Johnson.
(…)
In Washington, the White House political affairs office, then directed by Ken Mehlman, recognized the importance of the drought-relief issue to the Thune race. That spurred an effort in the administration to come up with a way to help the embattled Republican candidate, according to a former senior official at the Department of Agriculture.
In his speech in South Dakota, the president said he opposed drought relief that would add to the federal budget deficit. So White House and USDA officials came up with the idea of tapping a special fund derived from annual customs receipts, the former official said. The fund, dating to 1935, is known as Section 32. The secretary of agriculture can use it to help farmers without consulting Congress.
On Sept. 12, Thune weighed in with a letter to the USDA suggesting the use of the fund.
One week later, then-Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman summoned reporters to the USDA’s broadcast center and, with Thune and several other Republican lawmakers at her side, announced the creation of the Livestock Compensation Program, using $750 million from the special fund.
The ceremony, which was not attended by any Democrats, had the aura of a campaign event.
Thune lost that election by 524 votes, but defeated Tom Daschile two years later and now sits in the Senate. Perhaps it should be called the John Thune Campaign Compensation Program.
Related Posts:
Time To End Farm Welfare?.Again
More On The Absurd Farm Welfare System
Maybe They Send Flood Aid To The Desert
July 18th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
You are doing a great job on this. This is the kind of information that folks need to be aware of. The face of welfare certainly looks different from what they would like us to think it is.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
[...] The Washington Post has been giving alot coverage to the farm welfare fiasco over the past weeks. We’ve seen storties of people getting farm subsidies who don’t even own farms, other farmers gaming the farm relief system to make huge profits, ranchers who get disaster subsidies even though they’ve never subsidized a disaster, and farm policy being made to benefit one South Dakota Senator. [...]
July 20th, 2006 at 2:22 am
The Post might have an even bigger story if the names match up. Is Randy Schreiber connected to Daniel Schreiber, Granite Financial, Provo, Utah, who was involved with the losses incurred by Com2001? (Wilkes/Perez)
Is Sherman Robinson connected to James Robinson, Security Bank? (Rep Jerry Lewis)