Thursday, June 20, 2013

Farm Bill Defeated

I have to give Dan at MPP credit for drawing my attention to this. MPP Farm Bill Defeated  Unfortunately I apparently CAPS locked myself into getting locked out of their system.  (oops)  Hopefully it clears sometime, until then I figured I'd post my thoughts here.

CNN Farm Bill
FOX News Farm Bill
WP Farm Bill

I found Dan's summary most amusing:
"Though the proposed slashing of aid to those that need it most got the bulk of the attention, and rightly so, this bill was on the whole primarily a shameless gift to corporate ag and therefore replete with disastrous policy. Its underpinning, massive reliance on taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance programs, meant the continued plowing up of conservation lands and farmland price bubble-mongering, just for starters." (Dan Burns)

I mean $743,900,000 or 79.2% goes to food stamps and nutrition. (see WP link)  This huge gift / wealth transfer belongs in the Health and Human Services budget, since it is truly welfare.  And here he is chastising folks for having actual agriculture expenditures in the Farm Bill, go figure...

Now what do you think people would say if we actually moved all of the "welfare" money into the same bucket?  I am thinking that people would be shocked to see how many of their tax dollars go there...

And CNN said "House Democrats who opposed both the cuts to those food stamp programs and a GOP-backed amendment that added new work requirements for those applying for assistance."  Now I can understand their not wanting the cuts, but to fight ensuring that the people really deserve this free money.  C'mon now...

I think it is time for that Pelosi video again...

Thoughts?

4 comments:

John said...

While my temporary lock out continues... Mac added this interesting link.

"The Strib had a story earlier this week pitting the battle between Boehner and Collin Peterson … Peterson, who wrote the dairy provision, said the version Boehner supported would allow milk price volatility to continue and force taxpayers to pay more to support dairy farmers. Boehner won the amendment fight but lost the bill."

I found this quote most interesting in the article. "Many conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, especially those from districts with little agriculture, are expected to vote against it due to concerns over cuts to food stamps." It sounds like the perfect bill if the far right and left are against it... Didn't the Left say they want to compromise to reach solutions...

Though I am puzzled at how Boehner's proposal can "cost more" if it reduces the current price supports. "The proposed dairy program would do away with current price supports and allow farmers to purchase a new kind of insurance that pays out when the gap between the price they receive for milk and their feed costs narrows. The program is voluntary, but farmers who participate also would have to sign up for a stabilization program that could dictate production cuts when oversupply drives down prices"

I thought the Left wanted to stop paying the "rich corporate farmers". I mean Dan doesn't support the crop insurance program, yet he wants price supporters. So confusing...

jerrye92002 said...

There is room in the dairy program for a substantial amount of reform. For example, we should stop subsidizing milk production based on the distance from Madison Wisconsin! What this means is that Wisconsin dairy farmers get next to nothing in California and Maine dairy farmers (where there normally would not be a dairy industry) make out like bandits.

John said...

Proposal Comparison

John said...

I have access to MPP again. Here is what I posted...


Where to even start…

1. I agree that the GOP leadership did not handle this well.
2. You are concerned about the “farm program” when ~80% of the funding is a gift that goes to feed the “needy”, and some to feed all children who are in school. Let’s focus on getting this money moved to the Health and Human Services budget where it belongs. I believe all “welfare” should be moved into one budget so that it would be easier to see.
3. Most farmers I know would be happy to get the government totally out of their business. Unfortunately many people like yourselves want to control them in oh so many ways. Preventing the draining of marshes, promoting conservation oriented farming practices, promoting the discontinuation of farming certain land, stabilizing price swings, ensuring family farms aren’t replaced by corporations, controlling imports/exports, controlling herbicides/pesticides, etc, etc, etc. So of course we pay for these desires and the farmers take the money.
4. Are you really willing to have government get out of the price stabilization business? I am, but what will you do or say if milk prices jumps excessively due to a bunch of farmers leaving the industry? Remember our recent gas price spike…
5. Now many of you support FEMA disaster aid, Flood insurance payments, etc to help out other victims of “natural disasters, where as I think States should deal with their own problems. And yet here you are against supporting crop insurance that helps stabilize or national food supply. What is your rationale for being so inconsistent?

Remember: If you enjoy your meal, thank a farmer…