Posted on 05/14/2008 2:04:52 PM PDT by groanup
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
May 14, 2008; Page A20
We can't wait to hear how Members of Congress explain their vote this week for the new $300 billion farm bill. At a time when Americans are squeezed at the grocery store, they will now see more of their taxes flow to the very farmers profiting from these high food prices.
This year farm income is expected to reach an all-time high of $92.3 billion, an increase of 56% in two years, making growers perhaps the most undeserving welfare recipients in American history. But that won't stop this bill from passing the House and Senate by wide margins. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was once a farm subsidy skeptic, but she now has some 30 freshman Democrats from battleground rural districts to protect. So more than $10 billion a year in giveaways to agribusiness is a necessary taxpayer sacrifice to keep her majority.
Ms. Pelosi calls the bill "real reform," which is like calling Lindsay Lohan born again. For example: The bill perpetuates the so-called Hurricane Katrina gambit that allows farmers to lock in price-support payments at the lowest possible market price, and then sell their crops later at the highest possible price, and then pocket the high price and a payment from the government for the difference between the two. They in effect get paid twice for the same bushel of wheat.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ping
Willie Nelson won't be headlining any BrokerageAid benefits.
bookmark
The price we have to pay for cheap food. LOL!
I am.
This stinks, too.
Will the Dems be proposing windfall profits tax on “Big Agriculture?”
“they will now see more of their taxes flow to the very farmers profiting from these high food prices”
Anyone who thinks that the average farmer is making much profit is living a fantasy and needs to try farming. They’ll be surprised. The big agriculture is profiting nicely. Beware the day the small/medium farmer/rancher disappears, it is the day you see grocery prices rise exponentially.
How much of this 300 billion “farm bill” is actually earmarked for food stamps, school lunches, commodities, and other hidden programs that get lumped together as “Welfare for corporate farmers”.
Are we to treat the farmer’s “gross profits” the same way the MSM treated the oil company’s gross profits? Is there any mention of the increased cost of these profits? Are the farmer’s immune to the drastic operating costs everyone else faces? Do all farmers raise corn for ethanol, subsidized by the Feds?
Except for minimal cane sugar production in the US - LA, FL and TX - due to the termination of operations in other sugar cane producing areas - as compared to domestic sugar consumption - does anyone find sugar on the grocery shelves any cheaper with foreign produced sugar? No, you won’t.
There is no doubt that the Dimocraps use the Farm Bill as handout to voters and there are vast abuses of the Farm Bill. However, WSJ paints the Farm Bill with a very broad brush and their conclusions are ignorant at best. I would have expected a more accurate report out of the WSJ.
Very little foreign produced sugar is allowed in the US.
Everyone, everyone - our good government leeches our taxes from us, please do not be embarassed to request help when you need it from Uncle Sammy. That is if you want to deal with tons of red tape and a paper-web of bureacracy a mile long. Make the system work for us./Just Asking - seoul62.......
$300 billion spent results in $92.3 billion income.
Only government can get this kind of return on investment.
A lot of it. A lot more of it is earmarked to buy votes for congressmen who also have the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection plan.
Is there a good reason most of congress and the senate SHOULDN'T be under indictment for violation of their oath of office?
Resolute Conservative,,, bump
Our government’s for sale. Always will be.
This is totally irresponsible! Shame on the Congress for passing this “farm bill” that lines the pockets of more rich farmers with more money. When will this end? Only when statesmen stand up and say “no more”. To give these rich farmers more is simply pandering and securing their votes in November. This is another example of why this country is in the fiscal “mess” it’s in. We should throw out all those who voted for this travesty of a bill. We HAVE to stop this spending or we are finished as a nation.
“Anyone who thinks that the average farmer is making much profit is living a fantasy and needs to try farming. They’ll be surprised. The big agriculture is profiting nicely. Beware the day the small/medium farmer/rancher disappears, it is the day you see grocery prices rise exponentially.”
If the business of farming is so difficult and farmers cannot make a profit, why do they continue to farm year after year? There must be some reward. I dont think that farmers are such a magnanimous lot that they would continue to work and toil for no other reason than so their fellow americans could eat until their bellies are full.
As far as the small/medium rancher disappearing - they already have along with every other type of mom and pop operation conducting business in the united states. Apparently free trade without restriction is the order of the day. Thats fine but every other industry has been opened up to the world market without a safety net, why should farmers be any different. If they cannot manage a profitable operation on their own then maybe their talents should be employed elsewhere.
“they will now see more of their taxes flow to the very farmers profiting from these high food prices”
Anyone who thinks that the average farmer is making much profit is living a fantasy and needs to try farming. They’ll be surprised. The big agriculture is profiting nicely. Beware the day the small/medium farmer/rancher disappears, it is the day you see grocery prices rise exponentially.”
Agreed—
There is not a single small/medium farmer/rancher that ever sees an 8 hour day, with vacations, paid sick days, and benefits.
When your machinery costs upwards for $250,000 for almost any of it, and there is a 15 month waiting period, then you will learn about basic economics.
Seed, fertilizer, fuel has gone up for the farmer, and he still feeds his kids the same milk and cereal that you purchase yourself.
His hands almost never lose the callouses, and he can lose everything to pests or weather. Your job inside a nice warm and air conditioned building is absolutely a walk in the park by comparison.
His livestock get killed by the wolves that the yuppies couldn’t wait to re-introduce into ranching country, and each incident gets the same response: IF hte FISH & GAME agent didn’t personally WITNESS the killing, it wasn’t a wolf or a mountain lion, or what ever. So your investment in breeding cows, or ewes or what ever is dead with a baby inside, and you exhalt the wolves and mountain lions.
This country needs to revere the farmers and ranchers—not keep finding more ways to interfere with their operations.
A farmer/rancher feeds the USA and many other countries with the cheapest, cleanest food in the world.
Get yours heads on straight, people.
If you don’t like being blackmailed with the price of oil from other countries, wait until you get your food from other countries, where there are NO controls of cleanliness.
If you cannot drink the water in Mexico, why is it OK to eat the food raised with the same water?????
No one respects a farmer more than I do. But this bill goes way too far. Why not put the 200k cap on it? Everybody screams and moans about the price of gas but not a peep about the price of taxes and social security.
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