I was fortunate enough to be invited by my bank to go to Washington with a group of farmers to meet with our lobby groups and representatives. We arrived last Sunday to freezing rain on our touristy day. Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery. It is really sobering just the amount of headstones there and the significance of their sacrifice. There are many very significant historic people that have been essential to the survival of our country buried there. They had Kennedy's Tomb closed off due to the weather but we were lucky enough to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. You can really feel how serious those guys take their duty and the precision with which they carry out their actions.
The next stop was in the Lincoln Memorial area. We all know what the Lincoln Memorial looks like but its hard to capture the scale of these monuments until you see them with your own eyes. Pictures do not do them justice. The Washington monument was quite a bit taller than I had expected. It is really neat how the Capitol, Washington monument, WWII memorial, reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial all line up. I can't imagine what it looked like with a million citizens on the mall like during the civil rights movement. After spending that much time outside in the cold we had to warm up on the bus for a bit and drove up by the White House. Walked all the way up to the back gate of the White House but it is a damn long ways from the fence to the White House itself. I have no idea how that guy jumped the fence and made it all the way inside the WH. SOB must have been an olympic sprinter. Also had the secret service police watching the whole time to boot. Last stop was the Jefferson Memorial but made that one quick as it was getting dark and cooling off even more. We walked around to the front side later that evening and saw a little hippie protest camp that had been there since like the 1980s or something.
Now for the second day it was time to meet with some lobby groups to see what is going on that is pertinent to us farmers. There are a few issues like the EPAs attempt to regulate all waters that flow into navigable waters called "Waters of the USA" that are very important to defeat as it would result in needing an EPA permit for things like terrace work and pond building despite being far from navigable waters. This is an issue that will at minimum get tied up in the courts until the next president takes office. Most of the other issues like sect. 179 depreciation, estate tax, trade promotion authority are not going to have any progress made until the next administration. I was amazed how many people there were walking around but when you have any number of thousands of issues, you will have a lobbyist group for it and one against it all with several secretaries, lobbyists, and miscellaneous staff. You can see how stupid little nuances, tax breaks and regulations or deregulations get added to legislation to benefit only a few people. Those people are the ones lobbying their a$$ off and wining and dining the representatives and their staff to get what they want. Washington is no doubt a face to face town that runs on personal relationships.
The third day brought meetings with a representative from Alabama who was on the ag committee and an economist that works solely on ag issues. The afternoon was meetings with Senator Lankford's aide and Senator Inhofe himself. One thing is very clear and that is that our representatives are very dependent on their staff to keep them on point with facts and the status of specific legislation. Often when we asked pointed questions about specific legislation they had to refer to their aide for information. Another observation is that seniority is a big deal in congress. Lankford being a freshman senator had his offices located in the basement. Literally we met with his aide in the hallway. Inhofe was nice enough to spend a solid 20 minutes with us which is not commonplace. You can tell he is more focused on fighting the EPA and military issues for sure. Funny thing is that he is now the chair on the Environmental and public works committee or something like that. Ought to be interesting going forward.
I should add that this day was the day Netanyahu addressed congress. While meeting with the ag economist there were protestors right outside the window chanting against Netanyahu. Left that building walking by "Free Palestine" signs and hippies abound. Security was bonkers. IDK if security is that tight at all times but they had roads shut down to bus traffic for several nights. Our first driver was horrific and thought he was going to get us shot by trying to pull down some of the shut down streets. Those police don't F around. Civil liberties are a great big LoL to these guys. It is very clear why DC is an effective gun free zone. It would just be impractical and potentially dangerous to yourself with police like this to carry in DC.
One really cool thing that happened was when we were touring the Capitol a bit we were in the rotunda when Netanyahu came through. It was pretty cool getting to see such a contentious and prominent world leader up close. The entourage surrounding and following him was absurd. I got to see the press in it's natural habitat. Once he got over to the senate side we were heading that way anyways so we followed around the tour area but got stopped up due to the security. Anyways while waiting there must have been a press room set up so all the press lined up along the wall across from us. While they waited Diane Feinstein walked by within arms distance and Chuck Schumer walked around the other side. While the temptation to slap the **** out of them was strong, the no bull$hit attitude of the Capitol Police is a significant deterrent. Not necessarily the famous reps I wanted to see but what the hell. Another one I saw down below earlier was Orrin Hatch. He had a couple secret service guys with him but that guy is an intimidating individual. Kind of felt like the godfather or something. It was a good, action packed day to visit the Hill.
The last day we met with Representative Mullin and Lucas before we cut off our trip short to avoid being snowed in on the next day. Representative Mullin is a high energy guy and good to see some young blood up there in Washington. He seemed pretty sharp in explaining ag issues to representatives from non ag states and at least working on a neutral position from some of these reps. Lucas is a grizzled veteran of Washington and honestly probably our, meaning farmers, biggest advocate on the hill. This again is where seniority comes into play and losing his position would be detrimental to OK interests.
My overall takeaway from the trip is that govt. is bigger than imagined. I knew it was big but seeing first hand just how large, powerful and established it is really altered my perspective. I am a libertarian reformer at heart but this mountain is not going to be reformed that easily if at all. The best analogy I have come up with is that govt is an immense, immovable object that we all have to deal with. There is no practical way to reform or reduce this object to a manageable size. We can change representatives but the bureaucracy will remain no matter who is in office. The best we can hope for is to lobby for little loopholes and exceptions around the periphery to help us get around the immovable object that is govt. It's selfish yes, but it is the reality of the situation.
One of the funniest things that was a consistent theme was a general disdain for the tea party and they try to lump Rand Paul into that camp as well. I'm talking lobby groups and reps alike. To quote one lobbyist on Rand Paul, "He's bat **** crazy!". You can take that for what its worth but it did not deter my support of Paul. If anything it strengthened my support. He must not play by the same rules as the Washington establishment is used to seeing. Now that may mean even if elected, both sides would sulk up and do nothing but at least there would be an attempt made at changing the culture of Washington.
I'll get some pics up shortly.
The next stop was in the Lincoln Memorial area. We all know what the Lincoln Memorial looks like but its hard to capture the scale of these monuments until you see them with your own eyes. Pictures do not do them justice. The Washington monument was quite a bit taller than I had expected. It is really neat how the Capitol, Washington monument, WWII memorial, reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial all line up. I can't imagine what it looked like with a million citizens on the mall like during the civil rights movement. After spending that much time outside in the cold we had to warm up on the bus for a bit and drove up by the White House. Walked all the way up to the back gate of the White House but it is a damn long ways from the fence to the White House itself. I have no idea how that guy jumped the fence and made it all the way inside the WH. SOB must have been an olympic sprinter. Also had the secret service police watching the whole time to boot. Last stop was the Jefferson Memorial but made that one quick as it was getting dark and cooling off even more. We walked around to the front side later that evening and saw a little hippie protest camp that had been there since like the 1980s or something.
Now for the second day it was time to meet with some lobby groups to see what is going on that is pertinent to us farmers. There are a few issues like the EPAs attempt to regulate all waters that flow into navigable waters called "Waters of the USA" that are very important to defeat as it would result in needing an EPA permit for things like terrace work and pond building despite being far from navigable waters. This is an issue that will at minimum get tied up in the courts until the next president takes office. Most of the other issues like sect. 179 depreciation, estate tax, trade promotion authority are not going to have any progress made until the next administration. I was amazed how many people there were walking around but when you have any number of thousands of issues, you will have a lobbyist group for it and one against it all with several secretaries, lobbyists, and miscellaneous staff. You can see how stupid little nuances, tax breaks and regulations or deregulations get added to legislation to benefit only a few people. Those people are the ones lobbying their a$$ off and wining and dining the representatives and their staff to get what they want. Washington is no doubt a face to face town that runs on personal relationships.
The third day brought meetings with a representative from Alabama who was on the ag committee and an economist that works solely on ag issues. The afternoon was meetings with Senator Lankford's aide and Senator Inhofe himself. One thing is very clear and that is that our representatives are very dependent on their staff to keep them on point with facts and the status of specific legislation. Often when we asked pointed questions about specific legislation they had to refer to their aide for information. Another observation is that seniority is a big deal in congress. Lankford being a freshman senator had his offices located in the basement. Literally we met with his aide in the hallway. Inhofe was nice enough to spend a solid 20 minutes with us which is not commonplace. You can tell he is more focused on fighting the EPA and military issues for sure. Funny thing is that he is now the chair on the Environmental and public works committee or something like that. Ought to be interesting going forward.
I should add that this day was the day Netanyahu addressed congress. While meeting with the ag economist there were protestors right outside the window chanting against Netanyahu. Left that building walking by "Free Palestine" signs and hippies abound. Security was bonkers. IDK if security is that tight at all times but they had roads shut down to bus traffic for several nights. Our first driver was horrific and thought he was going to get us shot by trying to pull down some of the shut down streets. Those police don't F around. Civil liberties are a great big LoL to these guys. It is very clear why DC is an effective gun free zone. It would just be impractical and potentially dangerous to yourself with police like this to carry in DC.
One really cool thing that happened was when we were touring the Capitol a bit we were in the rotunda when Netanyahu came through. It was pretty cool getting to see such a contentious and prominent world leader up close. The entourage surrounding and following him was absurd. I got to see the press in it's natural habitat. Once he got over to the senate side we were heading that way anyways so we followed around the tour area but got stopped up due to the security. Anyways while waiting there must have been a press room set up so all the press lined up along the wall across from us. While they waited Diane Feinstein walked by within arms distance and Chuck Schumer walked around the other side. While the temptation to slap the **** out of them was strong, the no bull$hit attitude of the Capitol Police is a significant deterrent. Not necessarily the famous reps I wanted to see but what the hell. Another one I saw down below earlier was Orrin Hatch. He had a couple secret service guys with him but that guy is an intimidating individual. Kind of felt like the godfather or something. It was a good, action packed day to visit the Hill.
The last day we met with Representative Mullin and Lucas before we cut off our trip short to avoid being snowed in on the next day. Representative Mullin is a high energy guy and good to see some young blood up there in Washington. He seemed pretty sharp in explaining ag issues to representatives from non ag states and at least working on a neutral position from some of these reps. Lucas is a grizzled veteran of Washington and honestly probably our, meaning farmers, biggest advocate on the hill. This again is where seniority comes into play and losing his position would be detrimental to OK interests.
My overall takeaway from the trip is that govt. is bigger than imagined. I knew it was big but seeing first hand just how large, powerful and established it is really altered my perspective. I am a libertarian reformer at heart but this mountain is not going to be reformed that easily if at all. The best analogy I have come up with is that govt is an immense, immovable object that we all have to deal with. There is no practical way to reform or reduce this object to a manageable size. We can change representatives but the bureaucracy will remain no matter who is in office. The best we can hope for is to lobby for little loopholes and exceptions around the periphery to help us get around the immovable object that is govt. It's selfish yes, but it is the reality of the situation.
One of the funniest things that was a consistent theme was a general disdain for the tea party and they try to lump Rand Paul into that camp as well. I'm talking lobby groups and reps alike. To quote one lobbyist on Rand Paul, "He's bat **** crazy!". You can take that for what its worth but it did not deter my support of Paul. If anything it strengthened my support. He must not play by the same rules as the Washington establishment is used to seeing. Now that may mean even if elected, both sides would sulk up and do nothing but at least there would be an attempt made at changing the culture of Washington.
I'll get some pics up shortly.
