John Block: Priorities for 2017

Just go to rural America. Farmers, ranchers, and most red states cannot wait for President Trump to get rid of the flood of regulations that President Obama has weighing on our shoulders.  Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) is at the top of the list. The Obama EPA has tried to regulate everything. On my farm, we need to be able to tile a wet hole, straighten a creek, or dig a ditch to improve drainage. We don’t want to be required to get a permit to make improvements on our own farms. Another question – what about Obama Care? The public doesn’t like it. Republicans will keep some parts of it to include parents keeping their children on their health plan until they reach 26 years, and will make sure pre-existing conditions will not deny an individual health insurance. Repealing Obama Care will be easy, but replacing it without losing the 20 million new enrollees that the plan now helps will be hard. Also, an industry like agriculture is very concerned about trade since we export almost 30% of our production. We know Mr. Trump wants better trade deals, and I support that. Other countries use tariffs and non-tariff barriers to protect their industries. We don’t have many barriers to their imports. So, as we move to give our companies a fair deal, we certainly don’t need a trade war.