Retail value of dinner with President has skyrocketed..and this time, the three winners can bring guests... Update, Nov. 27:Campaign releases5 new videos from the first "Dinner with Barack" The global economy may be in hot water, but the value of dinner with President Obama has gone up. In an effort to raise funds for the 2012 re-election campaign, President Obama is for the third time raffling himself off as a dinner date, he announced today in an e-mail to supporters. While the President is a cheap date--dinner can be had for just a $3 donation--the assigned retail value of the prize package has jumped from $1,075 for the first dinner, to $1,600 for the current dinner, which includes airfare and a one-night hotel stay. As an extra enticement for supporters, the contest is now two-for-one: Each winner can bring a companion. (Above: The new logo for the new dinner sweepstakes)
"We're taking names for the next dinner starting now, and this time I want to add a new feature: If you win, you can bring a guest," President Obama wrote.
This time there will be three dinner winners, rather than four, for a total of six guests sharing a meal with the President. It's proved to be a popular fundraiser, but the phrase "we're taking names" sounds a bit Orwellian, doesn't it? As he notes in his e-mail, the President dined on October 27th at a Virginia restaurant with the four winners of the first contest. He has yet to dine with the four winners of the second sweepstakes, and the Campaign has not released their names. The current contest closes for entries on Dec. 31. The prize is taxable, and no donation is *actually* needed to enter the contest.
The e-mail had the subject heading "You and a guest".
The text:
Friend--
A few Thursdays ago, I had dinner with four Americans named Ken, Casey, Juanita, and Wendi -- the winners of the campaign's first Dinner with Barack contest.
I loved getting to know each of them.
We're taking names for the next dinner starting now, and this time I want to add a new feature: If you win, you can bring a guest.
Chip in $3 or more today to be automatically entered to win a spot for you and a guest at the next dinner.
The folks who this election is all about tend to fall under the radar of the D.C. pundits and traditional news media.
They're people like Juanita, who helped put her three sons through college on a teacher's salary while saving what she could for retirement.
Like Ken, a single dad who stood by his mother as she fought insurance companies while battling two forms of cancer.
They're like Casey, whose three young kids may not yet appreciate what courage it took for their dad to take a chance and start his own business.
And Wendi, an artist and third-generation teacher who canvassed, marched, and phone banked in Indiana in 2008, the year her home state defied the traditional electoral map.
These people weren't just there for themselves -- they were representing you, this movement, and the folks I go to work for every day as president.
These dinners are important to me because I want to spend time whenever I can with the people who sent me here. They're proving wrong the conventional wisdom that says campaigns should cater to Washington lobbyists and powerful interests. And they're an important reminder that this movement -- and my presidency -- have never just been about me.
I'm proud that we're choosing to run the kind of campaign where a dinner like this isn't just possible, it's a regular thing. And next time, I don't just want to meet you -- I want to meet someone else in your life.
Donate $3 or more, and start thinking about who you'll invite to dinner:
Thanksgiving is about family, friends, and guilt-free eating for the White House chef... Sam Kass, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives, mixes personal and political food policy observations as he talks about the First Family's Thanksgiving plans, and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign in a new interview with NBC's David Gregory. Thanksgiving, not surprisingly, is the favorite holiday for the White House assistant chef; it's "about being together and enjoying delicious food and being able to not worry about it and just eat and eat," Kass said. The First Family shares the same feeling, said Kass.
"Thanksgiving is about celebration," Kass said. "About enjoying food and family and coming together...We just have fun and enjoy really traditional dishes that are being eaten all over the country."
Kass gives some cooking tips, too, revealing his secrets for perfect gravy and the ideal stuffing. Add nuts and cranberries, he advises, for ultimate deliciousness.
GREGORY: I just want to start by pointing out I wouldn't normally wear a full suit here, in the kitchen, but a) this is the First Kitchen, and you're in your dress whites here, so I mean that’s formal --
KASS: You know, this, this is my nice coat --
GREGORY: So I do have to ask you as we look at the White -- is this, is this the whole White House kitchen? I mean is this where everything happens?
KASS: This is where all the magic happens. And it's pretty amazing; it is quite small, at least to me--
GREGORY: It is small. I mean I’m looking around -- I mean it's bigger than my kitchen but it's still small. So whether you're cooking for the first family, or whether you’re cooking for a state dinner, it all was staged out of here.
KASS: It's all staged out of here, and you know this is an historic building, right, so we can't change any walls.
GREGORY: Right.
KASS: But when this kitchen was built, state dinners were closer to thirty people, as opposed to say a hundred and fifty or even up to three hundred. So this is what we have to work with and Chef Comerford and the team makes it happen -- and it's an amazing thing to see.
GREGORY: Let me first talk about you, because it’s interesting: You can be in your chef whites, but you're also spending part of the day wearing your suit, as an advisor in the White House on a lot of these nutritional issues. I mean this is a unique role that you play.
KASS: It is. It is a unique role, and it's a real honor to be able to work with the First Lady and the broader team, and we're trying to improve the health and nutrition of the country particularly as it pertains to our youngest, our youngest kids, so it's been a great honor.
GREGORY: Well let's talk more about that in just a minute, but I do want to talk about what everybody's talking about, which is: over Thanksgiving, and the Thanksgiving meal, this first family in particular is so committed to nutrition on a national scale and certainly in their own home. Does that also pertain to Thanksgiving or is it as much of a celebration of historical eating as it is for most families?
KASS: Thanksgiving is about a celebration, and enjoying food and family and coming together and really enjoying that whole, that whole process. So we really, we just have fun and enjoy really traditional dishes, just like dishes that are being eaten all over the country -- and the same way that they've been eating in their family for, since long before they got here. So it's about fun and enjoyment.
GREGORY: And let me ask you more generally: I mean is Thanksgiving to you, is the Thanksgiving meal a celebration of American food? Is that how you view it?
KASS: Oh absolutely. I mean I think Thanksgiving, you know, it comes from a celebration of the harvest, right – as the original, from way back when -- and for us, being in the White House, you know we just had a great harvest with a bunch of kids from the area and the First Lady and we're going to be using some of that produce for the Thanksgiving dinner here. But it is about tradition, and it is about togetherness and eating as a family and celebrating all that we have to be thankful for. And I think that is at the core of it, and you know personally I'll say it's my favorite holiday for that very reason -- that it's just about being together and enjoying delicious food and being able to not worry about it and just eat and eat.
GREGORY: What, what particularly interests you as a chef at this stage and working here? What is it that excites you the most about food? I should say what kind of food excites you the most -- whether cooking it or thinking about it.
KASS: Right, well in dual roles I probably have a couple different answers for you on that. But I think in terms of the cooking and as a chef, what excites me every day is being able to go down to the first lady's garden and being able to cook out of that. I mean it's just such an honor, number one, but two, as a chef, it's the best way to cook. I mean I can go down and pick whatever looks the best and is the most ripe, and then bring it up here and be putting it on the plate in thirty minutes. And that's, there's just, that's just exciting -- every day – ‘cause there's always something new getting ready to be harvested in the garden, so that's just been great.
GREGORY: And that is a great model for a lot of people who can eat that way, but one of the challenges you face and the First Lady faces is that so many Americans are not in a position --
KASS: That’s right.
GREGORY: To, you know, go into their garden and cook that for dinner, because -- you talk about food deserts, where fresh fruit and vegetables is not available for families to cook, whereas fast food seems to be everywhere.
KASS: Right. You know, we talk about choice and choice being you know the essence of what the First Lady is trying to, trying to work on here. But for families that don’t have any fresh food in their -- or any kind of healthy food in their neighborhoods, the notion of choice just doesn’t mean anything to them. So we’re working very hard to try to ensure that all communities really have access to healthy and affordable food.
Just this past summer the First Lady had a major announcement with, with retailers both big and small to target their growth and expansion in fifteen hundred locations across the country in the next five years. According to the companies this would, this will impact 9.5 million people -- families who do not have access to healthy and affordable food -- by either building new stores of refurbishing old stores that don’t have food to make sure we’re bringing in healthy food to these stores. It’s going to have a transformative impact for these families and make it much easier for them to make those healthier choices for, for their kids.
GREGORY: You’ve also, we’ve talked about the food pyramid and how the government revises those guidelines. What should the dinner plate look like?
KASS: Right. The the ‘My Plate’ has just been this great breakthrough. And it’s something that the First Lady had always said – ‘We need to give simple tools that make sense, and that are applicable to people’s lives.’ And while the pyramid, you know, was great and had its, had its strengths, we don’t eat off pyramids, and being able to put this in a plate form provides a framework that we can just see what is what is a plate should look like. But it’s open to the interpretation of any chef, and I say that in the most broadest terms -- all parents are chefs right? They’re cooking every night for their families -- to interpret this in a way that is delicious and creative and makes sense to the cultures and traditions of any family or community. So that’s why this has been so exciting and the response has just been overwhelming, it’s been great.
GREGORY: And so the key to your plate is what? In terms of getting the best nutritional value for particularly young people.
KASS: Yeah and eating balanced meals essentially. If every, if everyday we’re eating basically balanced meals with fruits and vegetables, whole grains, some good protein, some dairy: Then you know then our kids are free to do what they want and not for parents to not worry about them. So, you know, as a kid goes to a pizza party or has a, you know, splurges on the weekends, it’s no big deal. It’s if where kids are eating in that manner day in and day out is when they start to run into trouble.
GREGORY: But typically, I mean even like the old food pyramid, you want to see a lot of green on that plate.
KASS: A lot of green, a lot of leafy greens, dark orange vegetables, some whole grains, we’re really on the way if we’re doing that.
GREGORY: I have to ask: My colleague Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe has been so upset about the news in the past couple of weeks, that somehow Congress came to the agreement that pizza was a vegetable. Can you help me understand how this could possibly come to pass?
KASS: You're going to have to ask them for those, for the answer on that one. You know, we’re working really hard to try to make sure that their standards are reasonable and that schools can achieve them, but also that are supporting the health of kids. So that kind of decision I’m going to have to say, the Hill is where you’re going to get the answer for that.
GREGORY: What about what’s happening in schools? Where do you think is an appropriate place for government generally, and for the administration given the First Lady’s concern about this, to have the best possible impact on what children are eating in schools?
KASS: I would say, you know the First Lady’s said this a lot -- that government has a role to play here certainly. But most of the answers to the challenges we face when it comes to our kids’ health are going to come from the country -- from citizens and teachers, parents, community leaders, business leaders, and not really from from the government. We do have a role to play and I think schools is one of the places where it’s clear we have a responsibility to ensure that there are good standards that are based on science, that really help make sure our kids are getting the food that they need. You know we’ve done a lot.
The passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act that the First Lady championed along with leaders on the Hill and lots of people from around the country is is is doing a lot of that work. But the First Lady also is championing the Healthier U.S. School Challenge, which is a challenge that has very high standards around both what’s being served but also physical activity and nutrition education. We’re seeing incredible response to this all over the country -- schools are working so hard to on their own raise their owns standards and meet these really high benchmarks, and that has been amazing.
So we’re working to be supportive in any and every way we can, and it’s happening all over the country. Everywhere we go we run into a science teacher who has built a garden and is doing curriculum, or we run into a food service professional who’s just taken it on his or her back to just make some big changes and educate their kids about how to make a better choice even in the cafeteria line. Story after story like this. So it’s just been great.
GREGORY: And along with that, a big part of the campaign is Let's Move, and being active and for kids as well as grownups to be active, because any of us know who try to live a fit life that you've got to get the eating right but you’ve got to -- that level of activity has to always be there. One can't go without the other.
KASS: That's absolutely right. And you'll see in this next year we're going to really focus a lot on making sure our kids are getting the activity we need. Right now, you know, the average American child is in front of a screen for about seven hours a day. And so long as our kids are sitting in front of a screen for seven hours a day, we're going to have some real challenges in making sure that they're going to reach their adulthood, you know, in a healthy place. So we're going to really work to inspire the nation, to work with mayors and other key stakeholders to provide better access to play, better access to being physically active, both in schools but then also in the community. So we're going to work hard on that.
GREGORY: So let me ask you a few quick ones. On the topic of Thanksgiving, is there a standout food for you that you like to eat or cook or both?
KASS: I'm a stuffing and gravy kind of guy.
GREGORY: Oh there's the fitness right there.
KASS: Hey, come on, look it's Thanksgiving, right. We’ve got to enjoy ourselves, you’ve got to blow it out.
GREGORY: And what's the secret to your stuffing and gravy?
KASS: Oh, well I mean I keep my gravy real simple. You just take the drippings from the turkey, a little flour, some herbs, a little shallot, a little onion, you're good to go. I keep that really simple. But I love in stuffing, some cranberries, some nuts, like pecans, and any kind of herb you throw in there. And whatever you do, whether you go bread or you go rice, you'll be good to go.
GREGORY: We've talked about grains. Like some hot grains right now that are being used in cooking. You know, great for your families instead of cooking rice, you can cook your kids some other grains -- talk about em, what excited you?
KASS: There's lots of great options out there that are really affordable and we just need to learn you know, practice, to practice cooking with them, cause you know we haven't cooked with them a lot. Couscous can be made in five minutes -- whole wheat couscous is literally done in five minutes; it's available in most stores, it's very cheap. Cracked wheat -- also really delicious, easy to cook, it's great. Brown rice, we always, you know, I always try to cook with brown rice whenever possible.
GREGORY: Farro.
KASS: There's also farro. Farro is a great grain, really good whole grain and lots of nutrients, lots of fiber, becoming more and more available. It's a really old grain, it's actually one of the world's oldest grains.
GREGORY: And you can make it like risotto.
KASS: Yeah, I make it like risotto all the time. Or you can cook it just like rice --there's lots of ways to use it. But we’re trying to, yeah, families are experimenting and coming up with new dishes all the time. It's really exciting.
GREGORY: What is a house standout, a White House favorite that you've cooked, you or the team have cooked?
KASS: Oh that’s, that's top secret information.
GREGORY: That's classified information?
KASS: There's no way I can disclose that. Oh a standout, I don't know, what's a standout? You know, we, to be quite honest with you, we just try to cook balanced meals, there always has to be a vegetable on the plate ,and it always has to get eaten -- that's for sure, that's non-negotiable. And we just try to keep balance, but we also make sure we're having fun. We have kids in this house and so you know, we throw them a bone every once and while, give ‘em something that's fun now and again--
GREGORY: Do you keep anything in the kitchen here for any late night snacks, or it's just like the leftover farro?
KASS: Yeah they’ve got to fend for themselves.
GREGORY: They’ve got to deal with that. What about when you really get to let loose? A state dinner, a time when you really want to be creative, what really gets your juices flowing as a chef and for that kind of setting?
KASS: Oh you know, look, it just depends on the season. I think a lot of times we really try to cook with what's the weather, what's the season like. So today it's cold and rainy, well you know that would be more exciting to get the soups, the squashes, we did, Chef Comerford did an amazing squash dish, squash soup, for the Korean state dinner that was made with squash from the garden. It was actually planned as a part of a three sister's garden, with the corned beans and squash that some young kids planted with us. So that was amazing. We got so excited about that. It's really fun to watch that whole process translate into a state dinner, I mean it's just been amazing.
GREGORY: Chef Kass, thank you very much.
KASS: It's been such a pleasure.
GREGORY: Happy Holidays.
KASS: To you as well.
##
*Photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama. NBC Video.
Ahead of tax-break speech, an eat n' meet with "a middle class family"... Back on American soil for less than 48 hours after his whirlwind tour of the Asia Pacific, President Obama was already heading out of Washington, DC on Tuesday morning. He took part in a favorite road ritual: En route to a speech at Central High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, President Obama stopped at Julien's Corner Kitchen for a planned lunch meeting with the Corkery family. The cozy, casual corner restaurant serves breakfast and lunch, pool reported, and is also located in Manchester. (Above: The President, the Corkery family, and their very low-cal meal)
According to a White House backgrounder about the 11:35 AM meeting, the President sat down with the Corkery family to discuss "the importance of extending and expanding the payroll tax cut that has given tax breaks to millions of families across the country this year," the subject of his speech at the high school. Chris Corkery, the father, has taught math at Central High for twelve years, and he is a retired Colonel, serving 26 years in the US Army. His wife Kathy, a small business owner, and their two sons, Andrew and Nicholas, were also at the lunch, which looks to have been extremely low calorie.
Mr. Corkery introduced the President at Central High School, where he was greeted by an audience of more than 1,200 as he warned Congress that failing to act on the tax cut "will hurt middle-class Americans."
The press pool was escorted into the restaurant to listen in on the beginning of President Obama's conversation with the Corkerys, which lasted 20 minutes.
"Although it was difficult to hear with music playing in the background, Mr. Obama could be overheard discussing Mr. Corkery's military service and his wife's role in supporting him during difficult times. The young children (roughly age 4 and 5) greeted Obama warmly," pool reported.
The President's motorcade was off and heading for the high school at 11:52 AM. Pool failed to report on what or if the President actually dined.
Info: Julien's Corner Kitchen is at 150 Bridge St, Manchester, NH03104. Phone: (603) 622-4044.
2012 Farm Bill: Will Congress cut crop insurance? Subsidies? Conservation?... *Ed note: My colleague Jerry Hagstrom, acclaimed agriculture journalist and author of the subscription-only The Hagstrom Report, has allowed Obama Foodorama to cross-post his detailed analysis of what the future holds, now that the Supercommittee has admitted defeat...
Supercommittee Failure Means Uniform Cuts As Congress Fights Over New Farm Bill In 2012
By Jerry Hagstrom
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s failure to come up with a proposal into which a new five-year farm bill could have been incorporated means that the Office of Management and Budget will announce early next year that farm programs will be subject to across-the-board cuts at the same time that Congress is struggling to write a new five-year bill in regular legislative order.
"After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. ,and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the co-chairs of the supercommittee, said in a statement issued at 4:46 PM on Monday, after the markets had closed.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said in a joint statement that agriculture committee leaders had developed a bipartisan, bicameral proposal for the Committee on Deficit Reduction that would save $23 billion.
“However, the Joint Select Committee’s failure to reach a deal on an overall deficit reduction package effectively ends this effort,” the statement said.
“We are pleased we were able to work in a bipartisan way with committee members and agriculture stakeholders to generate sound ideas to cut spending by tens of billions while maintaining key priorities to grow the country’s agriculture economy. We will continue the process of reauthorizing the farm bill in the coming months, and will do so with the same bipartisan spirit that has historically defined the work of our committees.”
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Pat Roberts, R-Kans., said the supercommittee’s failure “means that a farm bill will now be written in regular order as it should be.”
“In recent weeks, the chairs of the House and Senate agriculture committees have worked on a farm bill proposal, largely without my input and the input of the other members of the two committees,” Roberts said. “The last proposal was so ‘secret’ that I still have not seen final legislative language and scores.”
Roberts also said that, while “significant strides” were proposed in crop insurance and conservation programs, “I had substantial concerns about what little I knew of the direction of the commodity title and the inequitable distribution of spending reductions between commodities, conservation, nutrition and specialty crop programs.”
Complicated process ahead for Farm Bill... Roberts’s statement reveals how difficult and complicated it will be for agricultural leaders to achieve their often competing goals through the processes of across-the-board cuts and regular order for the farm bill.
Roberts has said repeatedly this year that the nutrition programs, which make up about 75 percent of the Agriculture Department budget, should be subject to cuts, but in fact the bill that Stabenow and Lucas had written cut food stamps by $4 billion over 10 years, and exempted -- at Roberts’ insistence -- any cuts to crop insurance, while the program of “sequestration” or across-the-board cuts exempts food stamps, and will require cuts in crop insurance.
The debt ceiling bill that gave the Treasury Department the power to raise the debt ceiling also said that if the congressional supercommittee failed to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years, across-the-board cuts in both defense and domestic spending would go into effect in 2013 to achieve $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years.
Domestic programs, other than those that are exempt such as food stamps, are to be cut by 7.8 percent in 2013 and an unspecified percentage in years after that.
House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has said that agriculture programs would be cut about $15 billion over 10 years, an amount that is less than the $23 billion that the agriculture committee chairmen and ranking members told the super committee they would accept in exchange for writing a new farm bill.
But the $15 billion cut will be much more concentrated in crop subsidies, conservation programs and crop insurance than if the agriculture leaders’ new farm bill had been accepted. And on top of that, the pressure not to reduce defense spending as much as the debt ceiling bill requires might mean that there will be pressure for an even bigger cut to agriculture programs.
President Barack Obama said in a statement on Monday night that he would veto any proposal to reduce the defense or domestic spending cuts.
“There will be no easy off ramps on this one,” President Obama said.
Under sequestration, all programs will be cut by the same percentage. The direct payments that the agriculture leaders were planning to eliminate or phase out will be subject to the same cut, as will marketing loans and most mandatory conservation programs.
Although the Office of Management and Budget has not issued definite statements on what programs will be exempt, the Conservation Reserve Program payments are unlikely to be cut because the government does not usually cut multi-year contracts during deficit reduction.
Crop insurance, subsidies likely to be cut... But crop insurance programs are annual contracts, and both the subsidies to crop insurance companies and agents for delivering the policies and the premium subsidies to farmers are likely to be subject to cuts.
The Obama administration had already called for cuts to crop insurance when it proposed that $33 billion be cut from farm bill spending, so any appeal to OMB on the crop insurance issue is unlikely to find a receptive audience. Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition noted in an email today that since crop insurance is now the largest farm subsidy program, it would be subject to the largest cut.
Food stamps along with other social welfare programs are exempt, but the situation with other nutrition programs is unclear, even though they serve poor people.
The special nutrition program for women, infants and children known as WIC operates like an entitlement, but it is appropriated and it appears likely it would be subject to cuts, as would commodity distribution programs. Whether school meals would be cut is also unclear. It’s possible that some aspects of the food stamp program might be subject to cuts, but OMB has not issued clear guidance on the nutrition programs, a Senate aide said on Monday.
Whether Congress can write a new farm bill in 2012 is open to question.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters last week that if Lucas were asked he would probably say that he could not get a bill through his committee. Lucas’s office did not respond to a query about whether Lucas agreed with that statement.
The Environmental Working Group, which is critical of crop subsidies and favors conservation, nutrition and programs that promote healthier eating, decried the agriculture leaders’ secretiveness in writing the farm bill that would have gone to the super committee.
But the passage of the fiscal year 2012 Agriculture appropriations bill with its provisions to restrict the Agriculture Department’s ability to implement a rule to improve the quality of school meals and to rewrite the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Act rule is an indication that progressives would face a difficult time in getting Congress to continue or improve programs they believe are important.
Likewise, the appropriations bill contained a provision tightening up limits on payments to big farmers, a prospect that gives conventional agriculture groups heartburn.
It’s unclear what will happen to the proposal that Stabenow and Lucas wrote. They never officially released that bill or showed legislative language to other members of their committees. The most public knowledge of that proposal came from a summary that Stabenow prepared for the super committee that was leaked. That proposal did not contain details of the commodity title proposals and was dated by the time reporters got their hands on it, Stabenow aides said.
What's ahead in the regular legislative order... Consideration of a farm bill in regular legislative order is likely to spur debate, as provisions in that proposal would raise target prices. Some groups have said that high target prices are likely to encourage farmers to plant major crops like corn, soybeans and wheat rather than engage in the rotation that environmentalists say is better for the land and leads to the planting of crops that have grown in importance since the 1996 farm bill allowed planting flexibility.
Regular order is also likely to mean public discussion about whether the new proposals would mean the United States has to classify more of its farm payments as trade-distorting, whether the country might exceed its $19.6 billion annual limit on those programs, and what kind of message the country is sending to the World Trade Organization about the trade-distorting subsidies that the U.S. government has always discouraged in international forums.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, which has criticized the farm bill proposals that were in the super committee proposal, said in an email today that regular order would allow for consideration for proposals it had made that had been rejected.
If Congress cannot reach agreement on a new farm bill, some lobbyists have suggested that the 2008 bill should be extended until 2013, when a new Congress might take a different view of it.
Congress will have to take some action before the 2008 act expires on Sept. 30, 2012, because that expiration would trigger a revival of the 1949 farm act, which contains provisions that are totally out of date and would also cause much higher government spending levels.
But an extension of the 2008 farm bill would not stop sequestration, and it would mean there would not be money for disaster programs, whose authority ended on Sept. 30, or for renewable energy development programs whose baseline ends on Sept. 30, 2012.
The Stabenow-Lucas proposal had extended renewable energy programs, but the Agriculture Energy Coalition had already expressed “great disappointment” that the bill reauthorized energy programs “only at modest levels and without mandatory funding.”
Farm group reaction... Farm groups issued mostly bland statements about the future.
“Presumably there will be a regular process of holding hearings and seeking input to consider the alternatives that the committee was working on, as well as additional alternatives,” said National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson. “NFU will continue to advocate for a safety net that provides support during difficult times – when markets collapse or when disasters strike.”
National Association of Wheat Growers CEO Dana Peterson said, “We are disappointed the super committee has failed at its task. Our growers understand our country has a lot of very serious issues in front of it right now, with effects well beyond farm policy. We are encouraging members of Congress to have an open dialogue on the path forward for our country, our economy and our industry.”
Peterson also noted that the group had never seen a written copy of the commodity title.
National Corn Growers Association President Garry Niemeyer said the group was disappointed and would continue to advocate for “market-based risk management farm programs that recognize our nation’s difficult financial situation.”
The National Cotton Council, which had earlier praised the ag committee proposal, declined to comment today.
Peterson, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who was considered the Aggie on the supercommittee, did not respond to requests for comment.
“There are so many scenarios that no one really knows what will happen,” Hoefner said in an email.
Congress “could punt to 2013, with or without sequestration being allowed to trigger,” he said.
Or it “could take it up quickly in 2012 hoping to get in front of any later action on deficit reduction,” or it “could wait for budget deal to solidify in 2012, assuming there is another shot at trying to prevent sequestration, though if that takes a long time there would not likely be enough time remaining to develop farm bill, unless they basically went with what they were going to do now but didn't.”
"There will be no easy off ramps"... President Obama delivered a statement in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday, after the co-chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, aka "the "Supercommittee," announced that they had failed in their mission. The announcement came in the afternoon after the financial markets had closed. (Above: The President during his remarks)
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________
For Immediate Release November 21, 2011
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE SUPERCOMMITTEE
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:44 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. As you all know, last summer I signed a law that will cut nearly $1 trillion of spending over the next 10 years. Part of that law also required Congress to reduce the deficit by an additional $1.2 trillion by the end of this year.
In September, I sent them a detailed plan that would have gone above and beyond that goal. It's a plan that would reduce the deficit by an additional $3 trillion, by cutting spending, slowing the growth of Medicare and Medicaid, and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.
In addition to my plan, there were a number of other bipartisan plans for them to consider from both Democrats and Republicans, all of which promoted a balanced approach. This kind of balanced approach to reducing our deficit -- an approach where everybody gives a little bit, and everyone does their fair share -- is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans -- Democrats, independents, and Republicans. It’s supported by experts and economists from all across the political spectrum. And to their credit, many Democrats in Congress were willing to put politics aside and commit to reasonable adjustments that would have reduced the cost of Medicare, as long as they were part of a balanced approach.
But despite the broad agreement that exists for such an approach, there's still too many Republicans in Congress who have refused to listen to the voices of reason and compromise that are coming from outside of Washington. They continue to insist on protecting $100 billion worth of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans at any cost, even if it means reducing the deficit with deep cuts to things like education and medical research. Even if it means deep cuts in Medicare.
So at this point, at least, they simply will not budge from that negotiating position. And so far, that refusal continues to be the main stumbling block that has prevented Congress from reaching an agreement to further reduce our deficit.
Now, we are not in the same situation that we were -- that we were in in August. There is no imminent threat to us defaulting on the debt that we owe. There are already $1 trillion worth of spending cuts that are locked in. And part of the law that I signed this summer stated that if Congress could not reach an agreement on the deficit, there would be another $1.2 trillion of automatic cuts in 2013 -– divided equally between domestic spending and defense spending.
One way or another, we will be trimming the deficit by a total of at least $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years. That's going to happen, one way or another. We've got $1 trillion locked in, and either Congress comes up with $1.2 trillion, which so far they've failed to do, or the sequester kicks in and these automatic spending cuts will occur that bring in an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction.
Now, the question right now is whether we can reduce the deficit in a way that helps the economy grow, that operates with a scalpel, not with a hatchet, and if not, whether Congress is willing to stick to the painful deal that we made in August for the automatic cuts. Already, some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts.
My message to them is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.
We need to keep the pressure up to compromise -- not turn off the pressure. The only way these spending cuts will not take place is if Congress gets back to work and agrees on a balanced plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. That’s exactly what they need to do. That’s the job they promised to do. And they've still got a year to figure it out.
Although Congress has not come to an agreement yet, nothing prevents them from coming up with an agreement in the days ahead. They can still come together around a balanced plan. I believe Democrats are prepared to do so. My expectation is, is that there will be some Republicans who are still interested in preventing the automatic cuts from taking place. And, as I have from the beginning, I stand ready and willing to work with anybody that’s ready to engage in that effort to create a balanced plan for deficit reduction.
Now, in the meantime, we've got a lot of work left to do this year. Before Congress leaves next month, we have to work together to cut taxes for workers and small business owners all across America. If we don’t act, taxes will go up for every single American, starting next year. And I’m not about to let that happen. Middle-class Americans can’t afford to lose $1,000 next year because Congress won’t act. And I can only hope that members of Congress who've been fighting so hard to protect tax breaks for the wealthy will fight just as hard to protect tax breaks for small business owners and middle-class families.
We still need to put construction workers back on the job rebuilding our roads and our bridges. We still need to put our teachers back in the classroom educating our kids.
So when everybody gets back from Thanksgiving, it’s time to get some work done for the American people. All around the country, Americans are working hard to live within their means and meet their responsibilities. And I know they expect Washington to do the same.
Vice President: Taking care of veterans is a "sacred obligation"... Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden welcomed twelve Wounded Warriors to an early Thanksgiving dinner on Monday afternoon at their Washington, DC, residence. The guests--primarily Marines who served in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province--were joined by their parents or spouses at the Naval Observatory. They sat around two large tables in the dining room as they had a traditional feast: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and pumpkin pie. (Above: The Bidens welcome their guests)
Many of the service members were in wheelchairs and missing limbs, having been wounded in 2010 and 2011. They are still recovering, and in treatment and being outfitted with prostheses at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda. The Vice President welcomed the men and women by telling them that they are an "inspiration" to all Americans, and “part of the finest group of warriors that the world has ever seen.”
He promised that President Obama and all future presidents will be committed to making sure that they will have access to any medical breakthroughs that can improve their lives or help them heal.
“We have only one true sacred obligation and that is to provide for those of you we send into harm’s way, and give you every single solitary thing that you could possibly need to make the transition back home reasonable and workable," Biden said. "That is the only truly, truly sacred obligation we have.”
When he was done, the Vice President gave the microphone to his wife, who spoke of her own experiences as the mother of a deployed soldier. The Bidens' son, Captain Beau Biden, of the Delaware Army National Guard, is a veteran of the Iraq war. With First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Biden leads the Joining Forces initiative to support and honor military families. (Above: Dr. Biden speaking with Lance Cpl. Joshua Misiewicz)
“I know what it was like to look down our family table and see my son missing,” Dr. Biden said. “I know what you families have gone through when your loved ones are deployed and I know what it feels like…I know how other families are feeling this Thanksgiving.”
During dinner, the Vice President sat between Lance Cpl. Stephen Ayhens, who lost both his legs when he stepped on a buried bomb, and Lance Cpl. William Carpenter, who was injured by a hand grenade. Dr. Biden sat beside Lance Cpl. Joshua Misiewicz.
Shortly after the meal began, Misiewicz and his mother broke away to talk to reporters in a small living room on the first floor. Misiewicz played hockey while growing up in Chicago, and lost both of his legs above the knee when he stepped on a buried bomb on a foot patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan in July. He has already been outfitted for prostheses at Walter Reed. Just last Thanksgiving, he was working at Camp Pendleton, outside of San Diego, and getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan.
“This is so nice,” Misiewicz said of the dinner. “It shows a lot of people care.”
His mother, Nancy Misiewicz, also chimed in with thanks for the Bidens.
“Nothing compares to a home-cooked meal.”
This is the third year the Bidens have welcomed Wounded Warriors for Thanksgiving.
*Photos by the Office of the Vice President. *Updated
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, released the following statement on Monaday afternoon in response to the announcement that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failed to reach an agreement:
"House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders developed a bipartisan, bicameral proposal for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that would save $23 billion. However, the Joint Select Committee’s failure to reach a deal on an overall deficit reduction package effectively ends this effort.
We are pleased we were able to work in a bipartisan way with committee members and agriculture stakeholders to generate sound ideas to cut spending by tens of billions while maintaining key priorities to grow the country’s agriculture economy. We will continue the process of reauthorizing the farm bill in the coming months, and will do so with the same bipartisan spirit that has historically defined the work of our committees." ##
Retail value of dinner with President has skyrocketed..and this time, the three winners can bring guests...
