Tulsa World: Lucas critical of Obama plan to end payments to farmers

Home > News > Article

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Lucas critical of Obama plan to end payments to farmers

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
Published: 2/26/2009 11:59 AM
Last Modified: 2/26/2009 1:39 PM

WASHINGTON –- U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas said Thursday President Obama's call for ending direct payments to farmers shows he does not understand how important rural communities are to the nation's economy.

As ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, the Oklahoma Republican took up the issue in a letter Wednesday to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

"I have real concerns about this administration’s position on eliminating direct payments to our producers, which would be detrimental to their livelihoods," Lucas said.

"Yet, it’s clear that both Secretary Vilsack and President Obama don’t understand the problems facing our agriculture community. And, they absolutely don’t understand how important rural communities are to our economy."

In his letter to Vilsack, Lucas said the Obama administration is intent on helping everyone during the current economic crisis but those who live and work in rural America.

"At a time when the USDA recently reported that U.S. net farm income is down 20 percent from last year, it is irresponsible to even think of eliminating the one stable form of support for our producers," he wrote.

"Our producers use these direct payments to get credit for their whole operations."

Lucas urged Vilsack to rethink the position on ending the payments.

"It is not the time to be risking our farmers’ livelihoods to pay for the mistakes of a few in other sectors of our economy," he said.

By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Reader Comments

Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Proposal on farms plowed by Lucas," which was published on 2/27/2009. So far, 64 comments have been made.