By Zack Stovall
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Five months into his administration, President Obama has room for improvement on issues important to rural Arkansas, members of the state’s congressional delegation say.
While none suggested the president is out of touch with rural America, as some Democratic lawmakers from other rural states have complained, some Democrats in the Arkansas delegation have broken ranks with the president on policy from the auto bailout to energy — key economic issues in a small rural state that favored Republican John McCain in the November presidential election.
U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, was one of four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to vote against clean energy legislation the president backs. Government incentives to reduce carbon emissions could raise the cost of gasoline and hurt drivers in expansive rural Arkansas, Ross says.
The House panel sent the American Clean Energy and Security Act to the full House on a 33-25 vote in May. Ross presented his own renewable energy bill last week as the House moved toward a final vote on the White House-backed bill, which was opposed by the Arkansas Farm Bureau because of the potential for higher energy costs for farmers.
“We appreciate some of the changes that were made in the committee to try and accommodate agriculture, but we’re still against this bill,” Farm Bureau spokesman Steve Eddington said Friday.
The measure faces a major struggle in the Senate, where supporters would have to muster 60 votes to avoid an almost certain Republican filibuster.
On another issue, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., says she was disappointed in the Obama administration’s handling of the auto industry bailout, particularly in decisions by bankrupt General Motors and Chrysler to shed thousands of car dealerships between them. Dozens of dealerships in Arkansas ultimately will be affected.
Advocates for dealers say that in many rural communities auto dealerships can be an economic lifeline, providing a needed commodity in automobiles and jobs.
“I thought (the dealership cuts) were done hastily and without input,” Lincoln said.
Asked if Obama is out of touch with rural America, Lincoln said while the president cares for rural communities, he would have a better understanding of their needs if he visited them more often.
“It’s important that we see (Obama) in rural America more. He’d be able to better see what the challenges are and what they need to overcome,” she said. “We have very different challenges in rural America that are hard to understand until you really see it.”
Lincoln, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee that will play a pivotal role in shaping health care reform legislation by crafting its financial component, said the president would benefit from “seeing the face on those challenges.”
Ross is a leader among conservative Blue Dog Democrats who have butted heads with the administration and the House leadership not only over energy but also on controlling government spending.
“I represent Arkansas. When they get it wrong, I’m not afraid to speak up and say so,” the congressman said, citing opposition to Obama’s consideration of reinstating the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and reopening the farm bill that designates farm subsidies for the next four years.
The president has dropped both ideas as politically unfeasible.
While campaigning for the presidency, Obama said his support of the assault weapons ban was based on his experiences as a resident of Chicago, and that the banned weapons would not include guns used by hunters and sportsmen.
In March, 65 House Democrats signed a letter Ross wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder opposing the ban, saying firearms are an important means of self-defense and an important part of his way of life as an avid hunter and outdoorsman.
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said that while he has taken issue with the president on such issues as Obama’s reluctance to increase the role of nuclear power in his clean energy package, those differences are more indicative of diversity within the Democratic Party than dissent.
“I represent Arkansas. I don’t represent Obama or Democrats. An Arkansas Democrat is different than an California Democrat,” said Pryor. “I have my differences with this administration, and I had my differences with the last. It’s the nature of the job.”
Pryor credited the Obama administration with improving communications between Congress and the White House.
“You really see this administration willing to work with Congress,” he said. “They may not take my ideas, but they’re certainly going to listen to them.”
While Democrats in the state delegation said rural Arkansas is benefiting from the $787 billion economic stimulus plan Obama pushed through Congress — Arkansas’ share will total $2.9 billion, the delegation’s lone Republican said the measure has not made much of a dent in the recession.
“I don’t see where it’s done much for the average Arkansan,” said Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers. “The whole point was to create jobs, but unemployment rates continue to rise.”
Boozman also said criticisms of Obama might be premature, as he is only five months into his presidency and about half of the stimulus isn’t programmed to be spent for another two years.
Art English, Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, says that each of the delegates have a history of dissent from Washington powers if they believe that those policies would hurt Arkansas.
“Our delegation is very politically astute. They’re not necessarily rubber stamps for their parties,” English said. “They understand they get their support from Arkansas, and they recognize we are a very rural state.”
