Timothy Peterson was probably going to be fired anyway. So, he decided to go out with a splash.
The Democratic political appointee on Wednesday resigned his agricultural post in protest of the Bush administration's farm and tax policies.
A Democratic political appointee has resigned his agricultural post in protest of the Bush administration's farm and tax policies, which he feels could finish off family farms. Here, Casey George, 9, and his cousin Bailey Brown, 9, Vinland, practice showing a pair of Holstein calves Wednesday at the family farm of Eugene and Laura George, 918 E. 1500 Road.
Peterson, chairman of the state committee of the Kansas Farm Service Agency, part of the federal Agriculture Department, said he was probably going to be asked to leave, but he wanted to make a political statement on the way out.
His message: Bush administration policies could finish off the already struggling family farmer.
"You have to do what you feel like you should," said Peterson, a farmer from Monument in Logan County. "There are some really good people in the Bush administration, but I really think the leadership is misguided."
Peterson said Bush wants to cut farm program payments in order to help pay for his proposed tax cut, which would mostly benefit those who already are wealthy.
"This administration wants to cut farm program payments for all farmers in order to give tax relief for a few," he said. "
Tax relief for farmers is a joke when farmers are not making any money."
That would be devastating, Peterson said, because under the Freedom to Farm program of 1996, many farmers are more dependent on government support.
Peterson said he didn't have an alternative plan to help farmers, but said any proposal would require "creative thinking." The Bush administration's emphasis on tax cuts is too simplistic, and would worsen the situation for farmers, he said.
The Farm Service Agency administers government payments to farmers.
Peterson was appointed to the post under the Clinton administration.
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