Marathon Pundit: Arkansas Democrat asking for poultry farmer bailout

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Arkansas Democrat asking for poultry farmer bailout

First let's visit Larry Kudlow's National Review blog:

Now step back a moment: The Wells Fargo story also suggests that we do not need any more TARP. Pay it down, don't expand it. And don't move to insurance-company TARP, or TARP for retailers or newspapers or anything else.

In case you missed the news, mega-bank Wells Fargo released its first quarter earnings--it earned a record $3 billion profit.

No more TARP--no more bailouts. That's what I think.

But add the poultry industry and Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) to those asking for "stimulus money":

From a Ross press release:

U.S. Representative Mike Ross (AR-04) has urged U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to free federal resources to help the nation's struggling poultry farmers stay afloat during the current economic downtown. Ross said he sent a letter to the nation's top Agriculture official in part due to the imminent closing of the Pilgrim's Pride processing plant in El Dorado, Ark.

"Agriculture is a vital component to Arkansas’s economy and has always been a focus of my work in Congress," said Ross. "The financial troubles of Pilgrim"s Pride and the imminent closing of their El Dorado plant jeopardizes the local economy and I believe that every available resource should be used to help the people of El Dorado recover. I am also deeply concerned with the tremendous financial burden this bankruptcy will place on contract growers in Arkansas, threatening our state’s overall poultry industry.”

Ross, joined by eight other members of Congress, recently sent the letter to Secretary Vilsack asking him to free a portion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Development funds, made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to be used for short-term, low-interest loans, or other forms of financial assistance such as disaster aid funding. Congress passed the Recovery Act earlier this year to stimulate the economy and to help with the current economic recession.