We like to say that we have the safest, most abundant, most affordable food and fiber supply in the world.  But this isn’t just a boastful expression, it is a reality.  Our farmers and ranchers are responsible for feeding folks living in our country and throughout the world.

But, cap and tax legislation threatens that safe, abundant and affordable food and fiber supply.  The agriculture industry, as we know it, will not survive under the heavy burdens of a cap and tax policy.

This week the Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research held two important hearings to learn more about the economic impact of climate change legislation.  Despite the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the Waxman-Markey climate change bill last June – a bill that I voted against—this is only the second time Members of the Agriculture Committee have had the opportunity to explore specifically the economic impact of climate change legislation on the agriculture sector.

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The last time we checked in on Nate Silver, the top-flight baseball analyst turned bottom-feeding partisan shill (appropriate for a guy who started out in politics as a Daily Kos diarist) was launching a crusade against Strategic Vision so lacking in integrity or even basic mathematical sense that it left many of us wondering whose payroll he’s on.

The sad part is, though, that his analysis is so bad, it would honestly surprise me if anyone were actually paying for this. Take this attempted broadside from Sunday. It’s full of so much bad math and so little critical thinking that I lack the time tonight to address it all. Here are the highlights, though.

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The debate over health care has reached a fevered pitch in our nation’s capital.  Over the last several months, millions of Americans have spoken out at town halls, have called and written in to the White House, and have even made personal visits to their members of Congress to express their strong opposition to government run health care.  Yet Speaker Pelosi has once again ignored their voices.

Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill H.R. 3962 was drafted without committee hearings or markups behind closed doors by Speaker Pelosi and a very limited number of her inner-circle.  Weighing in at more than 2,000 pages, Pelosi’s bill will cost the American taxpayers $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.

Real reform of our health care system is needed.  We must help those who want health insurance but cannot afford it.  We must expand access to health care in rural America.  We must fix our medical malpractice laws so that doctors can focus on saving patients rather than paying lawyers.  And we must expand our investments in preventative care.  However, that doesn’t mean we should throw out the car because it has a soft tire.  This country still has the best doctors, the best treatments, the best researches, and the best hospitals in the world.  Improvements need to be made, but not at the cost of potentially destroying our current health care system, saddling our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars of debt, decreasing our standard of care, and burdening American families and small businesses with $729.5 billion in new taxes.

I will continue to oppose Speaker Pelosi’s government run health care legislation and any legislation that comes before Congress that includes a public option.

Congressman Frank Lucas represents Oklahoma’s Third Congressional District.  For more information, visit his website at www.house.gov/lucas.

One trillion, four hundred twenty billion dollars.  It’s an astounding number.  It’s more than the entire economy of India and enough to give every man, woman, and child in the United States $4700.

It is also our country’s federal budget deficit for 2009.  That means that in the fiscal year 2009, which runs from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009, the federal government spent $1.42 trillion more than it took in.  To put this in perspective, last year’s deficit was $459 billion – still an astounding number, but less than half the deficit for this year.

When our nation runs with a deficit like this year, we increase our national debt – or the total debt we owe over the life of our country.  Our current national debt is $9.1 trillion, and climbing every day.  The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that, under President Obama’s spending plans, our national debt will rise to $17.1 trillion by the year 2019, meaning an increase of $8 trillion over the next ten years.  Most of this debt is held by foreign countries.  China, not known for their great relations with our country, holds the most – more than $800 billion.

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Democrats in Congress would have Americans believe that they have largely given up on their attempts to restrict the right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms. Barack Obama tried to fudge questions on gun control during the campaign, but has nominated to the Supreme Court a judge whose radical view of the Second Amendment is that states and localities have the right to ban firearms if they so choose.

And now Congressman Dan Boren speaks to the NRA about his commitment to defending the right to keep and bear arms, despite the efforts of left wingers in Congress to take guns away:

It’s gratifying that a Democrat is willing to step up and tell the truth about the ‘unfavorable political climate’ in Washington, and the desire of the ‘political fringe’ to ban guns, and reinstitute gun control measures in general. Hopefully Boren will vote the way he talks.

And while liberals frequently paint Boren as a conservative extremist, National Journal ranks him quite close to the center of the House of Representatives. They rate him as the 197th most conservative Member of the 435 in the House - hardly a right winger. If a moderate like Boren is wary of the aims of gun control advocates in Congress, believers in the Second Amendment ought to be as well.

Today I am announcing that I will seek re-election in 2010 to a second, and final term in the United States Senate. I need you to join me in our effort today to help ensure that we continue to fight for true reform.

Quite simply, there is still work to be done.

When I first decided to seek public office, it was because I was alarmed by Washington’s desire to impose collectivism and socialism on the public, particularly in the area of health care. Today, we face the very same challenge.

To our founders, America was, and is, an idea that trusts individuals more than the government, and it is an idea that trusts the competition of ideas and the entrepreneurial spirit to produce a more fair and just outcome than the cold calculations of governing elites.

But today many in Washington are claiming that all problems can be solved with more government spending and less individual freedom. Those ideas have never worked and they never will.

Very few leaders are talking honestly about the real causes of our challenges, much less the real solutions. I believe the decisions Washington makes today and in the near future will decide the fate of our republic. In short, I’m running again because I believe America, and future generations, are worth fighting for.

Therefore, the fight continues.

We must work hard to cut the federal deficit and stop the outrageous federal spending spree that is currently going on in Washington.

As a strict Constitutionalist, I also believe we must stand up for Supreme Court nominees who will interpret the law, and stand against those who want to legislate from the bench. One of the greatest threats to our freedom today is Washington’s denial of the limited, enumerated powers granted Congress under our Constitution.

Unless Congress has the specific authority to make a law, I believe it should be up to the states. That’s why our founders wrote the Tenth Amendment. When federal bureaucrats took steps to trump the Second Amendment and criminalize the possession of firearms on certain federal lands I stepped in and successfully defended the right of states to make their own gun laws.

We also need to stand together and resist plans to put politicians and bureaucrats in charge of our health care system. I’ve authored legislation to ensure that every American has access to affordable quality health care that is controlled by the individual rather than government or insurance company bureaucrats.

Oklahomans – and conservatives across the country – deserve to have a reliable voice for smaller government and common sense representing them in the Senate. And now more than ever, we need to fight for the principles of freedom, individual responsibility, and limited government that made America great.

I ran for the Senate because I wanted my children and grandchildren to enjoy the same blessings of freedom and opportunity I’ve enjoyed. America was built on a heritage of service and sacrifice, in which each generation made sacrifices to pass on liberty to the next generation. So much is at stake for our country in this moment in history. I will never tire in this fight, and should people of Oklahoma choose me to carry on in this effort, I will ensure that their conservative values remain represented in DC for the next six years.

Thank you for your continued efforts in our movement.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the President’s budget proposal for 2010 will produce a $9.3 trillion addition to our current deficit over the next ten years.  As with a person or company that borrows money, the federal government must pay interest on all borrowed funds.  To do this, the federal government sells U.S. Treasury bonds and bills to people, companies, even foreign countries.  Because they were considered the safest product on the market- after all, what other investment could be more sound than the United States government- the bonds were sold at a very low interest rate, giving rise to a low borrowing cost.  The United States would primarily sell these Treasury bonds and bills to Asian markets and countries in the Middle East, but in addition they were sold to companies and people all over the world. 

As the United States deficit grows, however, our need for additional borrowed money grows.  Unfortunately, our two largest customers- Asian markets and Middle Eastern countries- have also been experiencing a market decline and falling oil prices, decreasing their ability to purchase these bonds and bills.  Even more importantly, as our national debt continues to grow, investors will be less enticed to purchase bonds and bills backed by a government that seems intent on wracking up debt without paying it off.

All of this leads to one clear fact: sometime shortly, we will no longer be able to continue to sell as many Treasury bonds and bills as we need to run the government.  So what happens then?

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Yesterday, Congress passed H.R. 1106, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. Supporters hope this legislation will restore liquidity in the housing market and assist those homeowners who are in foreclosure. While this is a lofty goal, the bill just passed may not achieve it.

There are certain aspects of the bill that I can support. For example, permanently raising the FDIC insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000 will provide additional assurances that our banks are safe, which will encourage investment.

On first blush, it may appear that giving judges this power will be helpful, however the long-term results are unsettling. The most troublesome provision grants bankruptcy judges the power to write down the principle on a mortgage while lowering the interest rate and extending the terms. Known as “cramdown,” this provision would cause mortgage interest rates for the average American consumer to skyrocket, making homeownership harder for all Americans. Compounding this problem, cramdowns will be costly to investors who have invested in mortgage-backed securities and will cause them to demand a higher interest rate on all further mortgages. The result is grim: in a time when we need to restore confidence and liquidity to the housing market, this bill will actually discourage investment and decrease lending, perpetuating the current freeze on credit.

I am sympathetic to those Americans who are struggling with their mortgage payments. However, approximately 90 percent of homeowners are paying their mortgages on time. The federal government cannot continue to bailout the irresponsible choices of a few at the cost of many. Americans are suffering from bailout fatigue. It is time for Congress to come up with serious solutions to the serious problems we are facing instead of continuing to throw money we don’t have at every problem that presents itself.

Frank Lucas represents Oklahoma’s Third Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. For more Frankly Speakings, please visit Rep. Lucas’ Blog at http://www.house.gov/lucas/frankly-speaking/index.shtml.

I couldn’t agree more:

Blue Dog Democrat Boren, the lone Democrat [in the Oklahoma delegation - bf], was the first to pop off about President Obama.

Boren said Obama “missed an opportunity” for the stimulus bill to be bipartisan.

“It was a good thing for the president to meet with Republicans. The previous administration never met with Democratic members of Congress.

“The problem is that it became a Democrat bill and not an American bill,” Boren continued, “because he didn’t use any of the Republican ideas.”

Apart from us conservatives, Boren seems to be one of the few who recognizes that Obama has been talking through his hat. The President has droned on about bipartisanship, but this bill is a partisan vehicle. Recall that at his first meeting with Congressional Republicans, Obama was encouraging about using some of their ideas, only to reject them all later — because ‘he won.’ Obama has denigrated Republican ideas, while press secretary Robert Gibbs has been forced to admit that he can’t think of a single proposal suggested by a Republican that Obama included in the bill.

Boren now joins Walt Minnick among the Democrat truth tellers.