There have been plenty of theories about the causes of poverty in Appalachia. But too little time has been spent discussing the region's wealth and who owns it.

A Missourian takes the pulse of citizens on health care issues, gazes south of the border, and routes the results to Washington, D.C.

The headline in The Politico reads: "Rural Democrats differ with Barack Obama." That's pretty straightforward, and so are the first few sentences in the article by Lisa Lerer and Jonathan Martin: Angered by White House decisions on everything from greenhouse gases to car dealerships, congressional Democrats from rural districts are threatening to revolt against parts of President Barack Obama’s ambitious first-year agenda. 'They don’t get rural America,' said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who represents California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley. 'They form their views of the world in large cities.'"

The problems rising between the Obama administration and rural reps (both Democratic and Republican) are familiar to readers of the Yonder. Farm state legislators don't like Obama's climate change legislation because it disadvantages biofuels. General Motors and Chrysler benefited from bailouts backed by the President, but when it came time to shutter dealerships, rural communities were hit the hardest. (Dealerships in rural communities were closed with little explanation.) Strictures on coal-fired power plants would land the hardest on rural electric cooperatives, which get most of their power from coal.

The University of Kentucky's Al Cross says the conflicts between farm state Democrats and those leading the climate change legislation "could resonate beyond the beltway." Simply, unless Obama can win rural Democrats, he won't pass many of his more controversial proposals. Meanwhile, some top Democrats say that "Obama hasn't paid much attention to the rural states since he's been in office," according to The Politico. "We'd love to see him out in rural America more," said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the Arkansas Democrat (above).

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat (above), has removed all moved all the funds in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2010 budget  to implement NAIS, the National Animal Identification System. NAIS would require that every farm animal be tagged. The proposal has stirred mass opposition in farm and ranch country. (See the Yonder's latest story here. For more, just search above for NAIS.) DeLauro was able to excise the NAIS funding because she is chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.

DeLauro noted that the USDA has received $142 million since 2004 to start NAIS, but has "yet to put into operation an effective system that would provide needed animal health and livestock market benefits." DeLauro noted that USDA was currently conducting "listening sessions" about NAIS and that until these sessions ended and the USDA tells how it would implement an animal ID system, "continued investments into the current NAIS are unwarranted." 

This doesn't mean NAIS is dead. Cattle Network says the "ball game just went into extra innings." Right now, the politics of NAIS are cool. Rep. DeLauro "votes with the left-leaning caucus of her party," notes Cattle Network. And "NAIS is a concept abhorred by small family farmers, about as conservative a group of people as you can find on the American political scene." So the new hero for many rural Americans is a Connecticut Yankee. How about them apples?