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No More Farm Subsidies!
Congress is at it again in their relentless pursuit of special interests and screwing the little guy. The little guy in this case being both the American Taxpayer and small farmers. The proposed 2008 Farm Bill has little in the way of meaningful reform and essentially perpetuates a system in which large farmers will continue to receive direct payments. The bill itself is a 5-year 300 billion dollar program. You read that right, three hundred BILLION.
About $26 billion, or $5.2 billion a year of that is in so called "Direct Payments" a program in which farmers basically get a check for doing nothing. I personally think we should eliminate this entirely and save that $5 billion a year. What's laughable is Congress is trying to include some "reforms" in the bill, like "caps" on direct payments for example.
Here's how the proposed "caps" would work (courtesy of Mulch Blog):
Non-farmers now getting subsidies will be disqualified only if they have an adjusted gross income (income after most deductions) in the stratospheric range of $750,000 or more (averaged over three years I presume) in 2010.
The "cut-off" will drop after that ($650,000 in 2011 and $500,00 in 2012).
However, if it's farm income we're talking about, the "cap" is not a travesty of a mockery of a sham. It's a farce of a masquerade of a burlesque of a whoopee cushion.
Farm-derived income would be "capped" (as in "gimme cap") at $950,000, meaning huge operations could still make that much before they are dinged in any way on subsidies.
And here--imagine the sound of the teeniest, tiniest little bell ever--is the ding!: For each $100,000 per year these giant farmers make above that amount, they will lose 10 percent of their direct payments only. Which payments, it has been reported, will be raised to $50,000 per person (up from $40,000 in current law) or $100,000 per couple ($80,000 in current law).
So let's say you had $100,000 in DPs coming your way. To lose it all, you'd have to have farm income of $1.9 million.
What a joke! The White House wants to cap subsidies at $200,000 in income, but when the average American is making less that $65,000 a year, even that seems ludicrously high to me. With food prices at record high levels, why do we need subsidies at all? Here's a novel concept: why don't these guys grow some food for a change, and EARN their money... you know, like everyone else?
What's worse, is if you consult the Farm Subsidy Database, you'll see that "In 2006, the top 10 percent of recipients were paid 62 percent of all USDA subsidies." Furthermore "of the nation's 435 congressional districts, just 22 account for over half of all farm bill subsidies." I smell a special interest group, how about you?
Oh wait, here it is: "Over the past twelve years, taxpayers have spent $56 billion on corn subsidies paid to over 1.5 million recipients, making it the top crop for federal assistance." With corn prices topping $6 per bushel (three times the $2 per bushel in 2004) does anyone think we need to be subsidizing corn farmers?
But wait, there's more, in 2006 we paid corn ethanol subsidies totaling $7.0 billion. My head hurts.
I'm going to go try to calm down and let you contemplate whether your letter to your Representative should include foul language or not.
