Agricultural News
Bob Stallman Talks to RON About Farm Bill, Death Tax and a Twitter Handle
Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:06:31 CST
One year ago- the American Farm Bureau held their annual meeting in Honolulu- and at that meeting- there was a lot of discussion about the policy positions that the organization wanted to adopt as Congress pointed to the writing of the 2012 Farm Bill. Fast forward a year- and Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays set down on Sunday afternoon with the President of the American Farm Bureau, Bob Stallman of Texas, and Stallman admitted that he thought that by this meeting, we would likel;y be talking about the implementation of the 2012 Farm Law. Stallman told Hays that unfortunately, Ag Committee Leaders were not able to get over the final hurdle of House GOP leaders making the political decision not to allow a vote on the 2012 Farm Bill as adopted by Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas and his House Ag Committe.
Stallman noted that he is grateful for the one year farm bill extension, which offers certainty to farmers for the 2013 crop year as he does not expect Congress to move quickly enough to supplant Direct Program payments as authorized in this measure with any reforms that would include the 2013 crop year.
Assuming Congress can move on a 2013 Five Year Farm Bill, Stallman expects the policy elements to be similar to what we saw in the 2012 legislation- "In terms of policy, the pieces will pretty much be the same. He is worried some members of Congress will demand even bigger cuts in baseline spending from agriculture with any legislation that might be drafted.
He adds that his bottom line message to Congress here in 2013 on the five year farm bill- "Let's just get it done and allow farmers and ranchers to have some certainty- and you can move on to other issues."
Hays and Stallman also discussed the nailing down of estate tax policy on New Year's Day by Congress. Of that- Stallman says "this is a huge deal for America's farmers and ranchers." The setting of the exemption at five million dollars, getting stepped up basis continued (which he calls a big deal for AFBF) and the exemption indexed for inflation all is very positive for the farm and ranch community. He points out that if we had fallen back to the turn of the century level of a million dollar exemption- that would have meant it could have only protected 120 acres of Iowa farmland at recent valuations of that land- based on sales per acre of over $8,000.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear our full conversation with the long time AFBF President.
One final subject that Hays asked of Bob Stallman- when did he plan to get a Twitter handle? Stallman chuckled and said that he thought he was probably "past the age to be a real tweeter." Of that, Hays noted to the AFBF President- "it is never too late."
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