Tim Holden: Friend to Farmers?
by Holden Watch
In our last post we revealed Tim Holden's recent vote to make the death tax
permanent. Because most farmers' personal wealth is tied up in their land,
the death tax has been responsible for the loss of many thousands of family
farms since it was first enacted.
A long-time member of the House Agriculture Committee, Holden speaks
incessantly of his sensitivity to farm issues. His votes for the death tax
put the lie to that claim. Additionally, a recent development calls his
commitment to district farmers and his judgment into question once again,
while highlighting Holden's failure to read and understand legislation.
Tim Holden is one of three co-sponsors of House bill HR 4117 introduced by
Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY). HR 4117 has been referred to the House Committee
on Agriculture, chaired by Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Holden's senior on
the Ag Committee.
The bill would switch the burden of milk hauling costs from dairy farmers to
processors.
It sounds like a good deal for dairy farmers, doesn't it?
We'll wager Timmy thought so and co-sponsored the bill in the belief that
dairy farmers would get some cost relief from it.
They won't. Many will be harmed by the bill.
According to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) the bill would
result in higher make allowances and lower milk prices to farmers. Make, or
manufacturing allowances are the amount of money processors deduct from the
milk price paid to dairy farmers to cover their expenses.
At best, it's a wash: One hand giveth; the other hand taketh away.
However, the IDFA believes that, in order to keep hauling costs low, the
bill will eliminate incentives for processors to buy milk from small dairy
farms, especially those farther away from their processing plants.
This is a prime example of Tim Holden's ignorance or disregard of the
unintended consequences of the legislation that comes before him.
Timmy is still setting records for co-sponsorship in the House as a
substitute for any actual thought or effort on his part. Unfortunately for
him, his failure or inability to think things through often comes back to
bite him - and, unfortunately, bite the rest of us, too.
This may become just one more of those events.