As in IOU, the taxpayer.<\/p>\n
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?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 But I do.\u00a0 The sky was falling, they were so serious.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This would reduce the amount available at stores and would thus, result in a rise in prices.\u00a0 Dairy farmers win and consumers lose.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the end result when it comes to the Farm Bill even when they do come to an agreement.<\/p>\n
The Farm Bill is a five-year agreement.\u00a0 The government calls it something else each time, and the title drifts further from sounding like anything related to farming each time.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Yes, the farm bill is where most of the money to be spent on food stamps is appropriated.\u00a0 Congress overrode his veto.<\/p>\n
In 2012\/13 the bill was called Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act.\u00a0 No provision of the law that I’ve found had anything to do with creating jobs.\u00a0 Then it was called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).\u00a0 So now its name is totally connected to food stamps and has no titular connection to farming whatsoever.\u00a0 (How about that?\u00a0 A little truth in advertising!)\u00a0 What helped it pass was the $800 million reduction (over ten years\u2014the standard for all government spending\/saving calculations\u2014in food stamps.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
The current tab?\u00a0 Nearly $100 billion per year of which 80% or more is for food stamps.\u00a0 Of the rest, only about 10% of farmers receive over 75% of the subsidies. Some of these \u201cfarmers\u201d were in fact Congressmen, lobbyists, and other government officials and celebrities.\u00a0 \u00a0Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi receive farm subsidies.<\/p>\n
Other provisions of the law masked recipients of subsidies.\u00a0 There was a 194-word entry specifically to keep people who received subsidy anonymous.\u00a0\u00a0 Obviously that never lasts.\u00a0 The list is easily found but here is a small piece of it.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 One person, William T Hawks received the lion\u2019s share of this $841K.\u00a0 He got $240K starting in 2003 for cotton subsidies.\u00a0 Who is William T Hawks?\u00a0 Why, he is the former Undersecretary for Agriculture.\u00a0 US Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) receives a farm subsidy at his Arlington, VA condominium.\u00a0 Joining the list of DC insiders pocketing farm subsidy money\u00a0was Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack.\u00a0 Jimmy Carter, yes, THAT Jimmy Carter also receives subsidies for his peanut farm is Georgia.\u00a0 Oh, Louis Farrakhan also receives farm bill subsidies.\u00a0 Billionaire Ted Turner also receives subsidies.<\/p>\n
Here are two paragraphs lifted straight from some of the research I did:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In Chicago alone, a city without a single farm, 930 individuals and entities have received $6.1 million since 2008.\u00a0 In the nation\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers\u201d are also paid to not farm.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0According to The Wall Street Journal, contracts for the program usually last between 10 and 15 years in order to \u201cconserve soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill passed and was signed into law two months ago.\u00a0 And it is good for 5 years.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But remember this the next time it comes around for extension or renewal.\u00a0 All that bullshit they sling about the cost of milk going up, or the beef shortages that will happen\u2026it is all a load of crap.\u00a0 They extend this because it is a payday for them.\u00a0 Another one.\u00a0 And you foot the bill.<\/p>\n
Resources:<\/p>\n