09/28/2008
By Gary Truitt
As I write, the Congress and the Administration are negotiating on a $700 billion tax payer bailout of the nation’s credit industry. I find it ironic that the very people who contributed to problem are the ones being trusted to come up with a fix. But that point aside, Republicans and Democrats, bureaucrats and bankers, candidates and the media, all agree a mass infusion of government money is needed to fix the problem. Gee, aren’t these the same folks who just a few short weeks ago were criticizing the use of government tax credits to support the ethanol and bio-energy industry? They said it was bad policy to spend a few million dollars to subsidize the renewable energy sector. Now it is okay to spend close to a trillion dollars to cover the debts on home loans, car loans, credit card defaults and iTune downloads. So why is this crisis different?
When you think about it, the energy crisis and the financial crisis have a lot in common. Both have the potential to wreck the US economy and put a lot of “Hockey Moms” and Dads out of work. The energy crisis has sent fuel and food prices higher while the financial crisis will lead to higher interest rates on our mortgages and credit cards. Both are the result of years of neglect by the Congress and the White House. Both the credit and oil industries have powerful top executives who have lined their pockets with billions of dollars rather than taking steps to stave off a crisis.
The difference between the energy crisis and the financial crisis is that most Americans are far more worried about not having enough money than they are about not having enough gas. Timing is another factor. The stock market meltdown came at the peak of the national presidential campaign and just weeks before Election Day. Energy, which had been a major campaign theme, has disappeared faster than teenagers at chore time.
In this speech on September 24, the President said the government regulations of the financial sector are out of date. He called for reform and a new approach to meet the demands of the 21st century global economy. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush and the Congress did not take this approach when writing the last Farm Bill.
As I see it, the nation’s food and agricultural sector is where the energy and financial sectors were a decade ago - languishing in relative obscurity with outdated regulations and policies. Without meaningful trade reform, markets that function properly, food safety rules that make sense, opportunities for growth, programs to help farmers manage risk, and science-based environmental regulations, the next crisis we could face could be a food crisis. Like the energy and credit crisis, a food crisis would impact every American but would be understood by very few.
It would be nice if, for a change, our leaders in Washington would expend as much energy and money preventing a crisis as they do in fixing one.
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