Cut farm welfare
July 26, 2007

If you believe it's outrageous to pay federal subsidies to millionaire farmers, then root for U.S. Rep. Ron Kind on Thursday. If you believe that farmers reaping near-record prices for corn and soybeans have no business collecting money from taxpayers, then root for Kind on Thursday.

That's when the House will begin to debate the next farm bill. Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat, has an amendment that would alter U.S. agricultural policy radically.

Most farm subsidies go to the richest farmers of just five crops -- corn, wheat, soybeans, rice and cotton. The Democratic leadership's farm bill would do little to fundamentally alter the system of subsidies.

Ah, but Kind and his band of reformers would. (Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana is leading the effort in the Senate.) They would greatly reduce the convoluted system of farm price supports and cash payments. This would end the distorting policy that discourages smart, market-oriented farming, increases the cost of food and is the major obstacle to any progress on world trade talks.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Kind to succeed, but at least he is one Democrat willing to buck a system that rewards the few at the expense of the many.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked a good game before Democrats took control of Congress, but she has praised the bloated five-year farm bill that came out of the House Agriculture Committee last week, calling it a "good first step" toward reform.

Is she kidding? The Democrats' bill would give subsidies to farmers who have adjusted gross incomes of as much as $1 million. Yes, that's lower than the current cap of $2.5 million, but it still amounts to a government handout for people who hardly need it.

Kind's amendment would put the income cap at $250,000. (Incidentally, the Bush administration, often criticized for catering to the fat cats, has proposed an income limit of $200,000.)

Under Kind's reforms, farmers could set up risk management accounts, something like an IRA, in which they could invest and draw on when their income drops. His proposal would save $12 billion over five years, putting money into federal deficit reduction, hunger assistance, minority farmers and other efforts.

American farm policy has been held hostage by powerful agricultural interests for decades. Those interests don't want to see any change because this system works just fine for them. The members of the House Agriculture Committee, who unanimously voted to move the leadership's bloated bill onto the floor, come from districts that received more than 42 percent of all farm payments from 2003 to 2005, according to figures gathered by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group.

Wealthy farmers don't need subsidies. On Thursday, root for Ron Kind and a sane U.S. farm policy.

I happen to agree. That shit is totally unacceptable.

The problem up until now is the Repubicans didn't do shit because they represented large farming districts.

And the democrats wont do nothing, because they dont want the image of greed capitalists who want evil free trade.

Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county.

So says libertarian kid from Brazil.

So says libertarian kid from Brazil.

I have yet to find a worthwhile argument in favor of farm subsidies.

It helps presidential hopefuls to win the Iowa caucus.

Didn't Scottie Pippen make a few hundred thousand dollars on farm subsidies?

That and advocating increased ethanol production.

You know what the ironic thing about ethanol is? It takes more energy (read: gasoline) to produce it than it supposedly saves in fuel efficiency. What a joke.

The problem up until now is the Repubicans didn't do shit because they represented large farming districts.