The Farm Bill Continues A Legacy Of Fraud, Graft & Power-Brokering

I’m Ripping You Off

That’s right: taxpayers are subsidizing a New York columnist not to plant crops in a forest in Oregon.

That's right, folks, the government is still paying rich folks to plant--or in some cases, not to plant--crops that do not contribute to the economy in a meaningful manner, except to make rich individuals and big agro-businesses richer, or at least tax exempt in some manner or another.

Farm Subsidies Seem Immune To an Overhaul

Farm-state lawmakers expected to prevail in keeping old farm subsidies largely in place, thwarting bipartisan effort to overhaul system and in spite of White House threat of veto; federal payments have long been criticized as enriching big farm interests, violating trade agreements and neglecting small family farms; Speaker Nancy Pelosi, critic of farm subsidies, helps to secure more modest changes, pushing House Agriculture Committee to provide $1.8 billion for programs that aid fruit and vegetable growers and deflating some traditional opposition to farm bill; she notes that bill ends subsidies for richest farmers and closes loophole that let some farmers exceed subsidy limits by owning partnerships in multiple farms; critics in Congress say measure will perpetuate overly generous subsidy system at time when American farmers are well-positioned to weather changes

As taxpayers we have been led to believe that the tax exemptions and subsidies contained in the "farm bill" helps the family farmer and the small to mid-size farming business. But the way it works is that the larger corporate farming industry grabs a lot of these funds, leaving the family farmer, the small-to-mid-size farmer, and the average taxpayer in the wind. Pelosi can claim that this newest version of the farm bill closes some of the loopholes, but it just isn't so. In fact, many analysts agree that it created more holes than it closed. This bill just demonstrates that the Democrats are equally as inept, corrupt and stupid as the Republicans were during their last reign of terror on the American family, taxpayers, and infrastructure.

We need a farm bill that subsidizes producers of quality food crops, not something that makes the farming industry giants richer. We need a farm bill that encourages independent production of legacy and heirloom varieties, organic produce, and high quality food crops. We need to cease subsidies for cotton, tobacco and other crops that are produced for the larger profit=at-all-cost corporations, like R.J. Reynolds and its subsidiaries. We need to cease subsidizing crops that are primarily for export and let the natural market fluctuations control the price of these crops (i.e. milo, cotton, tobacco, feed corn), as well as subsidizing the American divisions of companies like Chiquita Brands that engage in illegal (and immoral) subsidization of terrorists and drug peddling paramilitary rebels in Central and South America. We need to return to basic American values, including above board business operations, placing stringent restrictions on how corporations can deposit its graft into the pockets of our political leaders in exchange for enhanced access and influence peddling, profiteering and fraud that is overlooked by our Congress and Executive Branch, and the overall screwing of those of us that hand over a third of our income to a government we can no longer trust.