Wisconsin is an agricultural state. Wisconsin leads in growing cranberries and ginger. You can’t travel in rural Wisconsin in August without seeing a corn roast. Every spring there are strawberry festivals. And Wisconsin potatoes are just as good, if not better than, anything from Idaho. And the state’s dairy air cannot be beaten.
But a banker from California wouldn’t know about such things. Apparently, there’s not many farms or dairies in Laguna Beach. So why would Eric Hovde even give a fig about what’s in the farm bill? By his own admission during Friday’s debate, he doesn’t know what is in it. But that didn’t stop him from trying to bullshit his way through the question:
PANELIST: Congress has failed to approve a new farm bill which expired at the end of the month. This puts funding at risk paid to the Wisconsin farmers and the supplemental nutrition program known as food stamps. What will it take for each of you to vote on farm bill?
HOVDE: I’m not an expert on the farm bill. I’m not in the US Senate at this time. So, I can’t opine specifically on all aspects of that farm bill. but one of the problems. I have with a lot of the farm bills, they’re masquerading as farm bills and address some of the needs of farmers. They are funding big corporations that have nothing to do with farming. So, I have a great concern about that and farm bills need to get back for farmers. Let me tell you what I hear from farmers. If you drive around the state, you see Hovde signs on almost every farm and I have been on so many different farms. What are they talking about? Regulations constantly. The kind of regulations that Senator Baldwin and allies are pushing on them. One of the big ones they’re concerned about is WOTUS – Waters of the United States and all the implications that have. And so as many farmers will say, if you stay out of my way I know how to care for my land and do proper farming.
MODERATOR: The farm bill question to Senator Baldwin.
BALDWIN: We need a farm bill that’s balanced and provide that certainty to the Wisconsin farmers. They are eager to have congress pass a new farm bill. They need the consistency a farm bill has. One of the problems with the farm bill right now is that the house, controlled by the republicans, has written a bill that’s basically eviscerated nutrition programs. Farmers support nutrition programs because it is purchasing their goods. But I just want to say that the Hovde plan, which would revert and reset spending levels back to the last decade, that plan would cut the U.S..Department of Agriculture by 34%. That is not standing up for our farmers. I will say I was proud to receive the Wisconsin Farm Bureau endorsement, the first Democrat in 20 years. That’s for the hard work I have done on behalf of the farmers and dairy in particular.
Farmers were already not too enamored with Hovde since he made a comment during his 2012 campaign for US Senate that farmers don’t have to work as hard in modern times because they don’t do much more than just ride around in tractors. His blatant indifference won’t help his cause either.
