Moran tries to educate people about rural life

May 13, 2009      The Garden City Telegram

Stephanie Farley

May 9, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- U.S. House Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, usually asks constituents at his town hall meetings if they're satisfied with what's going on in Washington, D.C.

And Friday, during a town hall meeting at the 3i Show, the tent full of people attending the meeting gave Moran the answer he usually gets: a resounding 'no.' In fact, Moran said, in all the town hall meetings he's done, he doesn't believe he's ever found anyone satisfied.

And there are plenty of reasons why, he explained, listing off several in the first few minutes of the meeting, including the government is spending and borrowing too much money.

"We have lived beyond our means," he said, adding there are consequences for those actions. "And we are living through that consequence today."

The government just passed a $3.5 trillion budget, he said, but the majority of the budget is borrowed money -- and by May 18, the government will have already started tapping into borrowed money.

"I don't believe we can borrow our way to prosperity," he said.

Agriculture dominates the Kansas economy, Moran said, and regardless of whether people are directly involved in the industry, they're affected by it. Moran told the crowd he tries not to have fears but he believes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is setting the stage in which, if the EPA's not careful, it stands to put a lot of small businesses, farmers and ranchers out of business through emissions and energy regulations, including limiting livestock carbon dioxide emissions.

Moran also touched on another impact to state agriculture with millions of U.S. acres no longer being a part of the Conservation Reserve Program that pays farmers not to plant crops. According to the Associated Press, about 4 million acres will be taken out of CRP on Sept. 20, many of them in the High Plains of eastern Colorado, western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Regulations in the new farm bill mean about 2.5 million acres can't be re-enrolled. Under the $2 billion-a-year federal program, the fields have been returned to native vegetation. The Farm Service Agency is offering three- or five-year contract extensions to landowners whose acreage is considered to be the most environmentally sensitive.

One constituent asked Moran what she and others could do to prevent the government from impacting their businesses and operations as much. Engage in the political process, Moran told her.

"We respond to you," he said of Congressional representatives answering to their constituents.

It's also important, he said, that western Kansas and the state continue educating and communicating the story of rural life to those who have no idea what rural Kansas is like. Moran says he's constantly working at educating people in Washington, D.C., on Kansas and rural Kansas.

Of cuts President Obama's proposing to the budget, Moran said, a lot of money would come from cuts to the farm bill, including crop insurance and farm payments.

Obama's talked about a cap on and prohibiting direct payments to farms where annual gross receipts exceeded $500,000. Moran said that proposal also shows a lack of understanding from those in Washington, D.C. -- that would eliminate thousands of farmers in Kansas, he said, and is just one more piece of evidence the administration doesn't understand what it's talking about.

The cap would mean "decimating agriculture as we know it," Moran said.

"They do not think like we do," he said of government.

That's a challenge, he said, as well as trying to advocate for the rural way of life, "one that we do not want to lose."

Newstex ID: 34892451

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