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DEL.ICIO.USGingrey and Westmoreland on the farm bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Columbus, Ga. — By early Saturday afternoon, the only two members of Congress left at the state GOP convention were U.S. Reps. Lynn Westmoreland and Phil Gingrey.
One voted for the farm bill this week, and one voted against it.
“It was a tough bill,” Gingrey said. And from a national perspective, it probably does look “bloated.” But in the end, the Marietta representative said he supported the $300 billion measure because of the benefits it sends to Georgia.
Although some subsidies need to be trimmed back, Gingrey admitted, some of the subsidies required his support. For cotton, for instance. “I’ve got a textile mill in one of my counties. It’s the only employer in the county. If they go down, the county goes down,” Gingrey said. In other words, a vote against the farm bill was a vote against those jobs.
That $451 million federal bio-terrorism lab that the University of Georgia is trying to land was another concern, Gingrey said.
The farm bill contains a demand for a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. This new operation would take over research on hoof-and-mouth disease and other nasty things, which is now confined to a laboratory on Plum Island, off the northern tip of Long Island, N.Y.
UGA is one of six sites still being considered. It would be difficult to keep Georgia in the running if the entire congressional delegation opposed the farm bill, Gingrey said.
As it stood, five Georgia House Republicans voted against the farm bill, while Gingrey, U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, and U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss supported it.
In his speech to the convention, Westmoreland warned that the GOP base was tired of party leaders who say one thing and do another. Afterwards, he reluctantly discussed his opposition to the farm bill.
“You have to look at what the entire bill did. I can’t get over having direct payments of over $40,000 to somebody that doesn’t put a seed in the ground or put a drop of fertilizer in the soil,” Westmoreland said. “If we’re trying to help the farmer, let’s help the people that are farmers. That, to me, sealed the deal.”
Comments
By Doug Craig
May 18, 2008 9:15 PM | Link to this
Add another big Government type to the list of GOPers. These never quit do they. Give our money to the farmers is OK but dont give anyone else or that is welfare. What happen to the free market approach. If you want small government type the Libertarian party is waiting for you. www.lpgeorgia.com