Maybe there is a different definition
of the word “reform” in Washington than in the rest of the
country. How else can one account for the latest version of the
farm bill, approved last week by the Senate Agriculture
Committee?
The bill, which Congress renews every five years, was supposed to cut giveaways to agribusiness and other wasteful spending. Indeed, Senate negotiators hailed the $23 billion in cost reductions over the next 10 years as one of the biggest shakeups in agriculture policy in generations. The committee achieved the savings by cutting some farm subsidies and trimming spending on environmental conservation and the food stamp program, which also falls under the farm bill.
The truth is the new bill might add to the quarter-trillion dollars in farm subsidies for which taxpayers are already on the hook. The measure will eventually go to the full Senate, where the latest gravy-train provisions should be derailed.
The one piece of good news is that the bill eliminates fixed payments, the $5 billion doled out annually to farmers as well as huge agribusinesses and urban residents who own land that might not have been worked in more than a generation. So much scorn has been heaped on these wealth transfers that the Agriculture Committee and the farm lobby knew that fighting to keep them was hopeless.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-02/senate-definition-of-reform-give-rich-farmers-more-aid-view.html
The bill, which Congress renews every five years, was supposed to cut giveaways to agribusiness and other wasteful spending. Indeed, Senate negotiators hailed the $23 billion in cost reductions over the next 10 years as one of the biggest shakeups in agriculture policy in generations. The committee achieved the savings by cutting some farm subsidies and trimming spending on environmental conservation and the food stamp program, which also falls under the farm bill.
The truth is the new bill might add to the quarter-trillion dollars in farm subsidies for which taxpayers are already on the hook. The measure will eventually go to the full Senate, where the latest gravy-train provisions should be derailed.
The one piece of good news is that the bill eliminates fixed payments, the $5 billion doled out annually to farmers as well as huge agribusinesses and urban residents who own land that might not have been worked in more than a generation. So much scorn has been heaped on these wealth transfers that the Agriculture Committee and the farm lobby knew that fighting to keep them was hopeless.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-02/senate-definition-of-reform-give-rich-farmers-more-aid-view.html
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