FSA and the Debt Ceiling: Contract Provision

I don't know which government obligations have similar provisions, and I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect FSA is not bound to pay direct payments if there's no deal on the debt ceiling because of this provision (paragraph 3 P of the CCC-509 appendix):

Payments are subject to the availability of funds, compliance with all applicable laws and statutory changes and to limits on payments as may be provided for in the program regulations and it is specifically understood that any payments under this Appendix and the programs to which it applies are subject to statutory and regulatory changes including those that occur after the signing of the contract.

There's also a provision in paragraph 10 to reflect modifications by Congress--the bottom line is the contract isn't binding.  Congress is the 700 pound gorilla, although practical politics is the surety farmers have that Congress won't simply rip up the contract.

In theory then, if the Obama administration has to prioritize payments, these payment should be the tail-end Charlie.

Sen Hatch the Conservative

Sarah Binder at The Monkey Cage has a post on Senator Hatch who faces a primary challenge next year from a tea party candidate.  In my memory he was a right wing conservative.  I identified him as such when he was first elected to the Senate, and he was.  He was much to the right of the center of gravity of the Republicans in the Senate.  Now it seems he is much to the left of the center of gravity, not because he's changed particularly, but because the Republicans have moved rightwards.  More accurately, as old Republicans have been defeated or retired, the new Republicans who have been elected are much more conservative.

Good Old Rummy

Ex-Secretary Rumsfeld got patted down going through security on the way to Mrs. Ford's funeral.  He seems to have taken it in good humor, saying people with 2 titanium hips and 1 titanium shoulder have to expect to take more time.

That bothers me, because I just completed the jerry-built structures needed to use my PC while standing.  There's lots of research saying that too much sitting lowers your life expectancy, and I've had some minor, I think, problems with circulation in my legs and feet which trigger my hypochondria.  So I got out my hammer and saw and built a platform which I used for the first time yesterday. 

Rummy notoriously did his office work standing at a desk, notoriously because when asked to approve "enhanced interrogation techniques" which included requiring the subject to stand, he asked why that was questionable.

But Rumsfeld's a better man than I, I've been standing for about an hour today and I'm not going to last for another, much less the 8-10 more he could put in.  And if it means titanium hips are in my future?  At least I'll have some future.

A Case of Counting Your Chickens

Brad DeLong has a series he calls "[X=historical figure] Liveblogs World War II [date]. Today's is Hitler, in July 1942 planning to reconfigure his armed forces after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Pigs Train Their Human

Given the example of Walt Jeffries and his peach-eating pigs, we're reminded that the relationship of humans and animals is a dance, just as the relationship of humans and humans is a dance.

If the Worst Happens

Zachary Goldfarb has a piece in the Post discussing the complexities the Treasury will face if there's no debt ceiling deal by August 2. While, as Republicans delight in saying, there's enough tax money coming in to handle the interest on the national debt and some other stuff, the decision making rapidly gets tricky.  (There's a chart in print paper I don't see online, but the Post does have a separate "game" where you can figure out which bills you pay and which you don't.)  The complexity comes in when you move past the neat tables of expenses for various items and look at the day to day receipts and payables coming due. 

For example, one day in:

On Aug. 3, the Treasury is set to receive about $12 billion in tax revenue — mainly from people paying their taxes late — and is slated to spend $32 billion, including sending out more than 25 million Social Security and disability checks at a cost of $23 billion, according to Powell’s analysis.
Obama could decide to pay half of the Social Security checks and ignore other bills coming due that day, which include $500 million in federal salaries and $1.4 billion in payments to defense contractors.

We really don't want to go there.

Self-Destroying Blog Post

Recursion is a way to get into trouble.  Chris Blattman offers good advice to aspiring Phd candidates, then says:

"Paradoxically, that might make all the above advice now strategically sub-optimal."

It makes me trust his judgment more.

Who Should Change the Law on Social Issues?

An excerpt from Stephen Hayward's discussion at Powerline of gay marriage:

"First, the one thing to be said in favor of the New York decision is that it was done by a vote of the legislature, a politically accountable branch of government, rather than imposed by judicial fiat through a strained construction of the “Cosmic Justice clause” “Equal Protection” clause of the 14^th Amendment.  New York’s path is how democracies ought to enact social changes of this kind, and indeed this is how most conservatives and libertarians have been saying the matter should be resolved for some time now, which explains the relative quiescence of many conservatives about New York’s vote"

 I suppose many would agree with that. It is, however, interesting to note slavery was abolished in some Northern states by court decision, not by legislative action.

Updates on Pigford II

Sustainable Ag has a post and links to a news release from the Federation of Southern Cooperatives on the progress of Pigford II.

Followup on ACRSIP

FarmWeeknow has an interview with Mr. Scuse on the streamlining of acreage reports. (ACRSIP).  Not much different than my previous post on the subject, except for this:

The streamlining project is not intended to reduce USDA offices (there currently are 2,241 nationwide) or personnel, according to Scuse. Farmers who do not embrace technology still will be able to report crop information in person at their local FSA offices.

My problem with that statement is the same I had back in 1992: how do you do a cost-benefit analysis to justify the expense of the hardware and software needed for this without cutting people and offices?  It can't be done IMHO.