If the Super Committee can’t reach agreement on a plan to find 1.2-trillion dollars in budget savings – or Congress can’t agree to approve it – the efforts of the Ag Committee leaders to shape farm bill cuts won’t matter. That’s because failure of the Super Committee plan will result in sequestration. Chris Wall of the National Pork Producers Council says that would take power away from the Ag Committees – and given possible ag cuts previously outlined by President Obama – the cuts would not come from the same places the House and Senate Ag Committees have proposed.

Wall says things just haven’t been going well for the Super Committee – where Republicans and Democrats still disagree on taxes and entitlements. Democrats don’t want to take from entitlement spending if there aren’t revenue raisers on the table. Republicans have said tax increases never will be on the table. Still – Wall doesn’t believe lawmakers will let it come to sequestration. Instead – they might come to agreement on a smaller round of cuts – maybe something like 800-billion – and deal with the rest in the new year.