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| 17th Congressional Candidates Talk Agriculture |
Farmers who haven't gone to the polls yet on this election day might want to listen to what three candidates in Congress have to say about agriculture.
The candidates for the 17th District Congressional District seat were asked at a debate last week broadcast here on WGIL and on Quad Cities Public Television station WQPT about the 2012 Farm Bill, and whether farm subsidy payments should be repealed.
Republican Bobby Schilling says what he calls the safety net for family farms needs to stay in tact.
"If we don't take care of our farmers, that's going to be a huge problem because we're going to have a difficult time eating. If we don't take care of them, they're going to struggle and fail."
Problem is, Schilling says, more and more family farms are failing.
Green Party Candidate Roger Davis says Schilling should actually talk to farmers first before saying that.
"Underneath the subsidies for the farming industry, the top ten percent of richest farmers and corporate farmers received over 76 percent of that money; $400,000 a year."
Davis says farmers would be lucky to get $1,000 to $8,000 a year from the federal government.
Democratic incumbent Phil Hare says he has a task for the House Agriculture Committee.
"I sent a letter with Congresswoman Halverson to have Chairman Collin Peterson come in and meet with the farmers in my congressional district and her district and find out from the farmers what they want in a farm bill, what's a safety net that works for them."
Schilling, as he did several times during the debate, accused Hare of casting the deciding vote to put Congress into recess to campaign instead of working on issues like the Estate Tax, also known as the death tax. |
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| 11 02 10 by Newsroom |
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