AFP - A Welfare Bill in Disguise

Policymakers say that the Farm Bill is about helping farms, but this just isn’t true.

In reality, the Farm Bill is a big welfare bill in disguise. The “Farm Bill” label merely allows the ever-growing spending on welfare programs to cause the price tag for the entire package to swell, contributing to our nation’s budget woes. 

Before we can improve U.S. farm policy, we first need to recognize that the Farm Bill is a giant welfare bill, and it needs serious change.

Contact your Representatives today and tell them to “Trim the Fat!” in the Bloated Farm Bill.

It’s hard to believe, but the numbers show that a whopping eighty percent of Farm Bill spending goes toward food stamp and nutrition programs.  The rest is welfare of a different kind: corporate welfare. The bill includes pork-like programs that do more to support special interests than small farmers, since the benefits go toward the biggest and best-connected farms that know how to navigate the Washington maze.

Every five years Congress must vote to reauthorize these USDA programs or watch them expire, meaning that the so-called Farm Bill is an opportunity to make serious reforms and real cuts to the billions we waste on farm subsidies and food stamps.

The Senate already rammed the Farm Bill through, and they failed to make meaningful cuts. The
House of Representatives is expected to take up the issue this week, and they need to hear from you that you oppose spending hundreds of billions of dollars on even more food and farm welfare.

Click here right now to tell your Representative to “Trim the Fat!” in this giant welfare bill in disguise.

AFP - It is not a Farm Bill

They just keep spending.

Apparently unfazed by the spending-driven crisis in Europe and our $16 trillion debt here at home, the U.S. Senate is actually considering whether to spend a trillion dollars over the next ten years on the so-called Farm Bill. 

In 2008, the country spent $51 billion on these programs and by 2011 it had almost doubled to $98 billion. Somehow the bill’s lead sponsor (Senator Stabenow from Michigan) has the audacity to claim $23 billion in deficit reduction over ten years. As AFP Policy Analyst Christine Harbin wrote, “Lawmakers are now patting themselves on the back for locking in those huge increases and then cutting a little bit around the edges.”

Take Action Today and Urge your Senator to Vote NO on this Bloated Spending Bill!

What’s worse, this whole package is masquerading through Congress under the guise of being a Farm Bill. But in 2011 almost 80% of the funding went to food stamps and other supplemental nutrition programs. With less than a quarter of the spending in this bill actually going to farm programs, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call this the Food Stamps Bill. 

The bill also claims to end direct payments to crop producers but it puts in a whole new program called “shallow loss” where Congress guarantees big agribusinesses’ revenues will never fall below 90% of their average revenues over the last five years. If a crop has a bad year or if prices fall, Uncle Sam is there to make up the difference. It’s a guaranteed minimum income and it’s just as bad as direct payments.

AFP has issued a key vote letter in support of four amendments as the Senate considers changes to the bill; click here to read our letter.

Take Action Today and Urge your Senator to Vote NO on this Bloated Spending Bill!

US Rep Bass Statement on House Passage of Reconciliation Measure

WASHINGTON – Congressman Charles F. Bass (NH-02) issued the following statement this afternoon after the House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation measure that would provide mandatory spending reductions of $78 billion in order to replace the automatic cuts to defense discretionary spending as outlined under the Budget Control Act.

Bass said:

“At the end of the year, our nation faces a fiscal cliff that we cannot ignore and that we must address in a serious manner, with the goal of coming to a bipartisan agreement.  Failure to move beyond political posturing will result in taxes being raised on every single working American and, as a result of the Supercommittee’s inability to produce a compromise solution to our nation’s fiscal problem, the arbitrary sequestration process that will harm our national defense capabilities. 

“However, I did not believe that this reconciliation package, nor the alternative offered by the Democrats, represented the balanced approach we need to address this problem.  While there were provisions in the House reconciliation bill that I support, the package as a whole is not the solution that will get to the President’s desk.

“Budgets need to be tough, but they also need to be fair.  When attempts are made to address agricultural spending by eliminating fraud in the food stamp program but do not even begin to address the billions of dollars in direct subsidies to factory farms – that is not right. 

“The reason I supported and continue to push for the bipartisan budget framework based on Simpson-Bowles is that it finds common ground by reducing spending, eliminating all of the automatic cuts, including defense, and increasing revenue through comprehensive tax reform that would lower rates across the board but widen the taxpayer base by getting rid of unfair loopholes. 

“I believe that is the kind of plan we will end up passing before the end of the year and it is the type of plan we should be working on now in a bipartisan fashion.” 

http://bass.house.gov

CEI Today: Farm bill reform, Europe's troubles compared to America's

FARM BILL - FRAN SMITH

Openmarket.org: Farm Bill Needs Real Reform, Not New Entitlements, Say Free-Market Groups

CEI joined with 10 other free-market groups in a letter today urging Congress to take on real reform of agricultural subsidies in the next farm bill and to resist attempts for new entitlements. The letter noted that farm businesses are doing quite even in this recession, with net income at $98 billion. With negotiations on reauthorization of the farm bill underway, it’s essential that Congress review federal agricultural policies that distort market decisions. The letter pointed out some specific areas that deserve attention.

The letter noted that, given the strength of the agricultural sector and the “glaring weakness of the federal budget,” it is essential for Congress to reform agricultural policy. And, the letter urged, there must be “full and open legislative debate on Farm Bill reauthorization.”  > Read the letter on CEI.org

> Interview Fran Smith

EUROPE & AMERICA - FRED L. SMITH, JR. Openmarket.org: European Lessons for America George Will warns that America’s system of competitive federalism is threatened by our own “Greeces.” (“In Illinois the bills are coming due,” April 27). Europe has been brought to its knees by the moral hazard from guaranteeing the debt of imprudent entities. Could a default in Illinois create a similar collapse here? Not in the same way. States are allowed fiscal autonomy and are expected to suffer the consequences of their own fiscal imprudence. Direct federal bailouts are unlikely, but they are not the real threat.  The risk Illinois raises for America is that the Federal Reserve may decide that states are “too big to fail” and move to ensure that failing states can continue to borrow and carry on their non-sustainable fiscal and regulatory policies.  > Read more at Openmarket.org >Interview Fred L. Smith, Jr. > Follow Fred L. Smith, Jr. on Twitter

Also featuring...

The Great Unanswered Question About the Eurozone

Austerity Bites – But It Isn’t the Problem

There Is Nothing Left to Cut

Federal Cyber-Security Regulation: Critical Safety Measure, or Privacy Nightmare?

Fossil Fuel Shill Sierra Club Bites the Hand That Fed It

CEI Today: Farm Bill sugar subsidies, highway bill, and the left-wing attack on ALEC

FARM BILL & SUGAR SUBSIDIES - FRAN SMITH

DailyCaller.com: Sugar program isn’t sweet for consumers or the economy

Don’t look now, but here comes the farm bill, one of those catch-all legislative behemoths littered with wasteful programs and supported by entrenched special interests. The bill comes up for reauthorization every five years and is a lobbyist’s dream — impacting everything from farm subsidies to food safety — and industry and interest groups are working furiously to protect their sacred cows, so to speak.

Given the inability of Congress to agree on much — and the fact that this is an election year — most observers give a new farm bill little chance of passing. Rather, it’s likely that Congress will kick the can down the road by passing an extension of current law. Wasteful spending on unnecessary programs will continue, and an opportunity will be missed — hurting U.S. consumers, taxpayers and workers. > View the full commentary on DailyCaller.com

> Interview Fran Smith

 

HIGHWAY BILL - MARC SCRIBNER Globalwarming.org.org: Everything about the Transportation Bills Is Bad Except for the Energy Parts, Which Are Great By a 293-127 vote, the House of Representatives yesterday adopted a short-term extension of the federal highway bill. Fourteen Republicans voted against it, while sixty-nine Democrats voted for passage. The original highway bill, known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, was enacted in 2005. Yesterday’s action was the 10th extension passed by the House since the original SAFETEA-LU surface transportation law expired in 2009. The House’s bill would extend highway funding for 90 days. In March, the Senate passed a bill that would extend it for 2 years. Next, House and Senate leaders from both parties will convene a conference committee, through which they’ll try to hammer out compromise language acceptable to both Congressional chambers. Alas, it is extremely likely that little good will come of the Conference, at least with regards to transportation policy. > Read the full commentary on Globalwarming.org > Interview Marc Scribner

ALEC & STAND YOUR GROUND LAWS - HANS BADER Openmarket.org: ALEC Unfairly Demonized Over “Stand Your Ground” Laws The pro-free-market American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is under fire for its support of self-defense laws, known as “Stand Your Ground” laws. The campaign against ALEC is an attempt to drive the marketplace out of the marketplace of ideas. ALEC’s critics and the Times complain that it is partly “corporate funded.” Strangely, ALEC’s critics have no problem with the fact that ALEC’s liberal cousin, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), is government-funded. It makes little sense to allow the government to lobby for more largesse and immunities for itself (which can happen through NCSL), while blocking corporations — which are associations of persons — from lobbying. > Read the full commentary & legal analysis at Openmarket.org > Interview Hans Bader

Also featuring...

Six Reasons Not To Ban Energy Exports*

The Tax Man Cometh — and Taketh

CEI Podcast for April 19, 2012: Right to Work Laws and Compelled Speech

Oil Speculators Are the New Boogeymen