by Frank James
The just-passed farm bill, which is valued at $290 billion to $307 billion, depending on who's counting, is taking some heavy flak from the city slickers who comprise the editorial pages of some of the nation's largest newspapers. The biggest complaint? it subsidizes wealthy farmers and contains all kinds of goodies for the well-connected.
This is from the Washington Post:
The farm bill is the epitome of old-style Washington politics. A small number of farm-state senators from both parties demanded its most wasteful provisions, such as guaranteed payments to big cotton and rice growers and "disaster relief" for farmers in arid areas. These members of the less-representative body leveraged their right to filibuster into billions of dollars for people who are better off than the average taxpayer. The bill includes only the most tepid reforms, which, though trumpeted by the bill's advocates, deny benefits to only a tiny handful of farms.
This is from the Chicago Tribune:
Farmers are enjoying record high prices for crops. Farm income has risen 56 percent over the last two years.
Yet the $290 billion farm bill passed by the Senate on Thursday and the House on Wednesday includes more subsidies for rich farmers. And it was passed by overwhelming votes: 318-106 in the House and 81-15 in the Senate.
Crop prices have been rising much faster than gasoline prices. (A gallon of unleaded gas in Chicago costs 35 percent more than it did two years ago.) High gas prices and record oil earnings prompted Capitol Hill hearings on price gouging and bills to limit oil industry tax breaks.
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