No one knows

New York Rep. Charlie Rangel holds court at the farm bill conference.....



There may a farm bill framework or there may not be, but there is surely no clear agreement on offsets and new taxes to fund the $6, $10 or $12.5 billion over baseline. New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was the unlikely spotlight stealer in the farm bill conference today. When Sen. Harkin told him "I don't care where the money comes from," Rangel said you are gonna care or we have no chance of working out an agreement. Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committee desperately want to get a bill done somehow, but they may not have the momentum to make it happen. Wednesday appears to be the hard deadline for real progress....