| American Agriculture and Rural America in the Global Economy Agriculture is at the heart of the U.S. economy. The food and fiber sector
accounts for 13 percent of the nation’s economic output and employs, directly or
indirectly, more than 22 million people.
When agriculture is hurting, the entire country aches. In all our policies and programs, the
Republican party is guided by two principles. First, to farmers and ranchers, nothing beats
production and sales at a good price. As
long as they have truly fair and open domestic and foreign markets, they can do
for themselves far better than anything government can do for them. Second, they want to produce what makes sense
on their own private property, not what official Washington thinks should be
grown there. Under Republican
leadership, government will never again run our family farms.
While these are not the best of times
for farmers and ranchers, the hopeful promise of our Freedom to Farm Act, which
finally replaced decades of controls by a federal bureaucracy, has been limited
by events at home and abroad. Farmers
were promised that, along with the end of governmental protection for
commodities markets, there would be reforms in tax, trade, and regulatory
policy. Opposition from the current
administration minimized progress in all three areas. As a result, American farmers were hard
pressed to deal with the challenge of increased global production and slack
demand in Asia. The ineptitude of
current U.S. trade policy only made it worse.
For American agriculture, prosperity
depends in large measure on expansion of global markets. Our farmers already export some $54 billion
in products and commodities every year.
For them, for the aspirations of their families and the dreams of their
children, the opening of foreign markets is essential. Governor Bush understands that. That’s why he has asked for restoration of
presidential fast-track negotiating authority, the key to forceful trade
negotiations abroad. And it’s why he’s
determined to open the China market for America’s farmers and ranchers. It’s why he’s called for the U.S. to demand,
in the next round of global trade talks, the complete elimination of
agricultural export subsidies and tariffs. It’s why he will fight the European
Community’s outrageous restrictions against imports of U.S. crops and
livestock. And it’s why he has pledged
to exempt food exports from any new trade sanctions.
Results will take time, and so,
looking toward the Farm Bill of the year 2002, we call for immediate action on a
safety net that will give farmers the means to manage cyclical downturns. This year’s reform of the Federal Crop
Insurance Act by the Republican Congress was a good start. In its wake, we propose:
Emergency assistance to facilitate the transition to a market-driven regime. A farm income savings plan: tax-deferred accounts to soften fluctuations in farm
earnings.
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Total repeal of
the death tax.
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Immediate 100
percent deductibility for health insurance costs.
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A one-time
exemption from capital gains tax on the sale of farms.
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