By Katie Micik, DTN Staff Reporter
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (DTN) — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain regaled the crowd attending the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association summer conference with stories of his summer cookouts.
“I do enjoy beef. Can’t you tell?” he said as he patted his stomach with both hands. The crowd laughed.
While revealing his support for the conference attendees’ livelihoods, he also explained that he favors abolishing the estate tax, capital gains taxes and the Environmental Protection Agency. He’d also let the markets determine ethanol’s role in America’s energy policy.
“I was briefed recently that they’re now looking at passing a regulation to regulate dust, I almost couldn’t believe it,” Cain said. He said there’s no one who knows the harm EPA can do better than farmers and ranchers, so he’d put them in charge of regulating EPA.
“We’ve got to remove one of the biggest barriers preventing us from becoming energy independent. It’s called the EPA. We have an EPA that has gone wild. And you know it because it’s your business that is getting worse, not better.” He said if he is elected president he’d open all of America’s oil, shale and coal production to achieve energy independence.
The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO approached NCBA about speaking at the meeting, said NCBA spokesman Mike Deering. In the ’90s, Cain spoke to the conference about food production. Cain is one of a multitude of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination. As a conservative with a business background and no experience in public office, he told the crowd he is the true dark horse that brings a business background to a troubled economy. He’s known for his success with turning the least profitable region of Burger King’s franchises into the most profitable within three years. He also returned Godfather’s Pizza to profitability.
He spoke with the enthusiasm of a Sunday preacher to a crowd of several hundred cattlemen from around the country. He answered a question about ethanol’s role in energy policy by saying it’s not an energy source he’d restrict.
“I think we let the market decide. I happen to think that our energy independence strategy that we are currently developing, ethanol has a role. Methanol has a role. Natural gas has a role. I think we should treat all of those the same so that the market can decide which one is going to best for us long term,” he said.
He’s opposed to GIPSA’s proposed livestock marketing rule, which he equated to malpractice lawsuits filed against doctors. “So doctors practice defensive medicine. If they’re able to follow through with this whole GIPSA ruling, it’s going to force you to do defensive marketing. That’s a waste of your time plus it tampers with the free market system.”
He’d take a four-step policy approach to immigration that begins with securing the borders and working with programs already in place. When told his position on immigration was insensitive, Cain said he replied by saying, “Let me tell you what’s insensitive, when citizens are getting killed because people are coming across the border. Our ranchers are being killed on their ranches. That’s insensitive, and I’m not going to be politically correct trying to protect the people of the United States of America.”
He advocates securing the borders, enforcing laws that are already in place, promoting the path to citizenship that’s already there by cleaning up bureaucracy, “so people will be encouraged to come through the front door into this country rather than sneaking through the side door or back door.”
The fourth part of his plan deals with how to handle illegal aliens already here by empowering the states. He said he’d give Arizona a medal for a tackling a problem the federal government wasn’t willing to instead of taking them to court.
Above all, Cain stressed the importance of the free market and the role it plays in growing business and creating demand for U.S. beef. He thinks free markets and free trade agreements support the U.S.’s ability to feed the world.
“When you start messing with the free market system, you’re messing with what has helped make this one of the greatest economic nations on the planet and the only way for us to change that is to change the occupant of the White House,” he said.
By removing trade barriers such as tariffs, passing the outstanding free trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia and new ones with friendly countries and eliminating burdensome regulations, America would be better situated to feed a world with a growing middle class hungry for protein.
“I can’t eat all them steaks that y’all are producing by myself. We need some help,” he said to a chuckling crowd.
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Posted with DTN Permission by Haylie Shipp
