Waste, Waste, Waste

There a lot of waste in the government's farm subsidies. This is a program designed to help family farmers during the depression by subsidizing some of their crops. It has long gone far beyond that. Now 90% of the money for those subsidies goes to corporate farmers. Very little gets to the family farmer. In fact, family farmers are nearly extinct in today's economy.

* Farm subsidies are intended to alleviate farmer poverty, but the majority of subsidies go to com­mercial farms with average incomes of $200,000 and net worth of nearly $2 million.

* Farm subsidies are intended to raise farmer incomes by remedying low crop prices. Instead, they promote overproduction and therefore lower prices further.

* Farm subsidies are intended to help struggling family farmers. Instead, they harm them by exclud­ing them from most subsidies, financing the con­solidation of family farms, and raising land values to levels that prevent young people from entering farming.

* Farm subsidies are intended to be consumer-friendly and taxpayer-friendly. Instead, they cost Americans billions each year in higher taxes and higher food costs.


I think this is one program we should eliminate from the budget.