As in IOU, the taxpayer.
Remember late last year the scare that rippled through the media about how milk prices may soar if the Farm Bill does not get passed? Probably not. But I do. The sky was falling, they were so serious. See, the government already props up the price of milk (at our expense) but if there was no deal on the Farm Bill, the price the government would pay was going to increase dramatically making them the prime target for dairy sales. This would reduce the amount available at stores and would thus, result in a rise in prices. Dairy farmers win and consumers lose.
That’s the end result when it comes to the Farm Bill even when they do come to an agreement.
The Farm Bill is a five-year agreement. The government calls it something else each time, and the title drifts further from sounding like anything related to farming each time. In 2008, the President Bush vetoed the law (the Food, Conservation and Energy Act) since he thought there was too much expansion in the food stamp part of the bill (47% more than the bill from 2003). Yes, the farm bill is where most of the money to be spent on food stamps is appropriated. Congress overrode his veto.
In 2012/13 the bill was called Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act. No provision of the law that I’ve found had anything to do with creating jobs. Then it was called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). So now its name is totally connected to food stamps and has no titular connection to farming whatsoever. (How about that? A little truth in advertising!) What helped it pass was the $800 million reduction (over ten years—the standard for all government spending/saving calculations—in food stamps. Even then, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters he did not expect the cut of about 1 percent of the food stamp budget to have a significant impact on recipients.
The current tab? Nearly $100 billion per year of which 80% or more is for food stamps. Of the rest, only about 10% of farmers receive over 75% of the subsidies. Some of these “farmers” were in fact Congressmen, lobbyists, and other government officials and celebrities. Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi receive farm subsidies.
Other provisions of the law masked recipients of subsidies. There was a 194-word entry specifically to keep people who received subsidy anonymous. Obviously that never lasts. The list is easily found but here is a small piece of it. Zip code 20003 (near Washington D.C. you know right smack in the middle of the farming belt of the country) had 75 recipients of farm bill money totally over $841K from 1995 to 2012. One person, William T Hawks received the lion’s share of this $841K. He got $240K starting in 2003 for cotton subsidies. Who is William T Hawks? Why, he is the former Undersecretary for Agriculture. US Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) receives a farm subsidy at his Arlington, VA condominium. Joining the list of DC insiders pocketing farm subsidy money was Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack. Jimmy Carter, yes, THAT Jimmy Carter also receives subsidies for his peanut farm is Georgia. Oh, Louis Farrakhan also receives farm bill subsidies. Billionaire Ted Turner also receives subsidies.
Here are two paragraphs lifted straight from some of the research I did:
The agricultural services industry contributed nearly $42 million in campaign contributions at the federal and state level according to Influence Explorer and spent more than $62 million on federal lobbying. Top recipients include Obama, with $474,000 and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Senate Agricultural Committee, with $169,550.
In Chicago alone, a city without a single farm, 930 individuals and entities have received $6.1 million since 2008. In the nation’s capitol, documents show 2,801 entities in the Washington DC area received over $18.4 million in payments from the Farm subsidy program. In New York City, 248 entities received subsidy payments. In all, the report shows just 10,806 recipients of the highest farm subsidies – $250,000 or more – with each receiving an average payment of $417,316.
“Farmers” are also paid to not farm.
The USDA estimates there are 700,968 currently active contracts in the program, while the number of farms is roughly 390,000 covering 27.02 million acres. The USDA predicts the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 payments will be $2.034 billion. The payments vary by degree of land sensitivity and can range from $50 per acre all the way up to $134, with the average being $61 per acre.
In 2010, the annual total amount of acres covered in the program was $31.3 million. This figure amounted to $1.667 billion in annual direct payments, or about $53 per acre. According to The Wall Street Journal, contracts for the program usually last between 10 and 15 years in order to “conserve soil.”
The bill passed and was signed into law two months ago. And it is good for 5 years. I guess a different president would be able to nullify the bill, unless of course, he or a family member, friend, campaign bundler, or a staff worker is receiving a subsidy. But remember this the next time it comes around for extension or renewal. All that bullshit they sling about the cost of milk going up, or the beef shortages that will happen…it is all a load of crap. They extend this because it is a payday for them. Another one. And you foot the bill.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_farm_bill
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/02/07/farm-bill-allows-congress-to-keep-crop-subsidies-secret/