Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he milked the taxpayer — E-I-E-I-O.
Such is the wonderful world of farm subsidies, which much in keeping with its Soviet five-year plan brethren, is coming around again for its twice-a-decade approval in Congress. Despite the change of the political guard in both houses of Congress, this massive handout to a very few privileged individuals looks to pass just as easily as it has in years past. The more things change, the more things stay the same, apparently.
Like much government largesse, this one comes with a heavy price tag — a whopping $286 billion over the next five years, 80 percent of which will go to only 20 percent of farmers according to the Environmental Working Group. Those who don’t fall within the fortunate fifth will receive on average a paltry $851 per year — seriously calling into question how these kinds of subsidies mean life or death for the family farm.
Of course, while the image of the family farm of “American Gothic” is regularly conjured up for the defense of farm subsidies, this is a gross distortion of where your money truly goes. For instance, the top one percent of payments, going to 13 percent of all farms, adds up to over $44,000 per year — more than some people manage to scrape up in an entire year without relying on a government handout. The operations raking in such large payments are anything but small family operations, either — all of them have net incomes well over $1 million per year.
Perhaps more obscenely, the top 20 recipients in 2005 all received well over $400,000 each — and that’s just in one year. The top recipient, River Rock Farms of Camilla, Georgia, received nearly $3 million in payments in 2005 alone.
Neither are the vast bulk of payments based in any way upon dire circumstances. Despite their beginnings as part of the raft of New Deal programs that never managed to die, farm supports have rarely been about actual financial need or common sense. The vast bulk of payments come in the form of direct payments to producers — regardless of actual circumstances such as natural disaster or financial need.
The notion of “reforming” farm payments is nothing if not a Sisyphean lesson in futility. Subsidies were to be phased out per the Freedom to Farm Act passed by the GOP-controlled Congress in 1996, an action which was immediately reversed by none other than our current fiscally “conservative” president upon taking office. In a strange twist of irony, even President Bush proposed modest limits on payments for this round of the bill, with modest caps on payments and means-testing for farms making over $200,000 annually. This proposal was of course laughed out of the room entirely.
In a just world, farm subsidies would have been put to pasture long ago, scrapped entirely — or at least replaced with less wasteful measures such as crop insurance. Don’t count on it with this Congress, though — like most handouts to concentrated special interests, this scheme to milk taxpayers has a long, unfortunate life ahead of it.
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