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Montana's new sovereignty law
Josh1776:
I apoligize for my stupid comments, which I've deleted.
FarmerRick:
Yup, I'm on that list. I earned a whole $5.31 per acre last year for my 80 acres.
It's a payment program intended to promote preserving natural habitat and conservation-type farming techniques such as buffer zones by creeks and planting native grasses in waterways. Do you like to hunt in Nebraska? Pheasants? Deer? Ducks? Turkey? Ever heard of "habitat"? Sure, the people that own thousands and thousands of acres get a nice check from the .gov, but most farmers that I know sure aren't driving new trucks.
You should see that new truck that my $430 "welfare payment" bought me. :o
What is your noble occupation, Lefty? Josh?
Just curious. No offense.
With that said, let's try to get this thread back on topic please, we can discuss this in another thread without hijacking this one.
lefty:
I worked for a natural gas utility for 38 years. Been threatened to have my home blown up for removing a meter for non pay and had to call the sheriff a few times to go with me to get a non pay meter. Yep, the customer is always correct. (In their mind)
One farmers I know in here Kearney county got $884,654 in the last 10 years
and yes it is a new work truck (fancy one) every year.
I was raised on a farm, pumped 25 old cows with my folks and 2 brothers for many years. Dad never did have a new pickup. Of course, we only farmed 360 acres out in Frontier county. Wouldn't trade my hill stomping with the .22 for anything.
Josh1776:
Good points FarmerRick!...I apologize for my stupid comments!...I know nothing about farming and I was speaking out of my butt...not sure that I was thinking...I was not thinking. I'm a former Marine who spent some time in the sandbox and now I'm an engineer in the manufacturing sector.
FarmerRick:
Didn't mean to call anyone out.
No problem Josh(and Lefty), I get pissed off about the govt. handing out our money too. It's just that my family has been in farming in one way or another in Nebraska since the late 1880's, and there will be quite a few having a hard time this year due to the rising costs of fertilizer, fuel, seed, etc. We're all just one hail storm from going under(crop insurance only pays 60% of actual crop value). Believe me, I wish that there wasn't any payments going to farmers from the govt., and the corporate farms that are getting hundreds of thousands are no doubt abusing the system. But until the govt. gets their sticky fingers out of ALL of our business(again, 10th amendment), I'll continue to take my very small share and do what I can with it.
In my case, I use the money to re-seed water ways, for weed killer, and other maintenance items around the farm while trying to improve the wildlife habitat and keep erosion to a minimum. I would do most these things anyway, but it is nice to have a little monetary help to do a better job. That pheasant that hatches on my farm may provide a meal for someone else come fall. Some big corporate farms may use their check for similar purposes, though I doubt many do.
The problem is: where do we draw the line? Who gets to decide where that line is drawn?
This is a very similar situation to some public assistance such as WIC and other programs, the govt. feels it needs to take care of the things that people and communities should be doing themselves. Quite a few of the people are appreciative of the help they get and end up paying most of what they get back into the system with tax dollars, but many more abuse these programs to the point of it being criminal. Certain parts of Omaha and many other large cities are full of these people, literally sucking the teat of the govt.(and our tax dollars) without trying to better themselves.
Back to Montana-
I wish them all the luck in the world, but it WILL be a court battle and will most likely end up in the Supreme Court. I just hope the ratio is the same as now, by the time it gets that far.
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