80% Of Trillion Dollar 'Farm Bill' Spent On Food Stamps, Not Farmers, Senator Say

CNS News ^ | 7/20/12 | David James

[Nachum]

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80% Of Trillion Dollar 'Farm Bill' Spent On Food Stamps, Not Farmers, Senator Says By David James July 20, 2012 Subscribe to David James's posts

Last night, radio host Mark Levin interviewed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) about the recent U.S. Department of Agriculture agreement with the government of Mexico to “help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” which includes the US food stamp program.

Sen. Sessions explained that the funding for this program came from a “farm bill” in 2002, which allocated $800 billion over 10 years for the entire US food stamp program – meaning that 80 percent of this trillion dollar “farm bill” program is spend on food stamps, leaving only 20 percent to go to farmers.

Sessions also noted that the requirement, which allowed only US citizens to acquire food stamps, was eliminated in 2002, under President George Bush:

Levin: “Senator Jeff Sessions, Alabama, I have a question. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, I honestly don’t know. I mean, are- what is a Mexican national? And why are they eligible for food stamps when they come into this country?”

[Nachum]

Hey, it's only money

[Nachum]

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[rbg81]

Sessions also noted that the requirement, which allowed only US citizens to acquire food stamps, was eliminated in 2002, under President George Bush:

---

Just dandy.

[PGR88]

USDA is providing the “bread.”

and Hollywood is providing the “circuses”

We are soooo screwed!

[chrisser]

Sessions also noted that the requirement, which allowed only US citizens to acquire food stamps, was eliminated in 2002, under President George Bush

I'm certainly not a cheerleader for W, but this comment seems a bit disingenuous.

Unless Bush personally wrote the legislation, Congress is the one responsible for writing, debating and then passing the ginormous bill that this provision was included in.

Perhaps Republicans in Congress should have put up more of a fuss when they wrote and passed the bill.

Bush may bear some responsibility for not vetoing the whole bill because of this one measure, but Constitutionally, it is Congress' responsibility to write good law and the President's to enforce it.

[ducttape45]

Well of course, and guess which senator had the most influence on the Department of Agriculture over the past 20 years or more.

Yep, you guessed it, Senator Richard Lugar, and most famous RINO in Indiana politics.

[aquila48]

“80% Of Trillion Dollar ‘Farm Bill’ Spent On Food Stamps, Not Farmers, Senator Say”

And when the food stamps are spent, a big chunk of that money ends up in the farmers pockets - so the farmers benefit handsomely from food stamps.

And I’m sure they lobby hard to make that program as big as possible.

[ken in texas]

... Congress is the one responsible for writing, debating and then passing the ginormous bill that this provision was included in.

Indeed. Bills might contain hundreds, if not thousands of different items. There's no line item veto, so you sometimes accede to unwanted things to get what's needed.

I wish each bill dealt with one item only, no more than two pages long. Vote up or down, then accept or veto as warranted, but that will never happen.

[Will88]

Levin: “Look, I - senator, I don’t understand how in 2002, with a Republican President, how we lift the citizenship requirement and now nationals from other countries qualify for food stamps. This is how these programs go nuts.”

Actually, it's easy to understand how in 2002 the citizenship requirement was lifted from the food stamp program. Just recall who the Republican president was in 2002, the champion of the illegal aliens and amnesty, George W. Bush.

[lewislynn]

80% Of Trillion Dollar 'Farm Bill' Spent On Food Stamps, Not Farmers, Senator Say

Nice try Senator but food stamps are issued by the Dept. of Agriculture and are a farm(er) subsidy.

[kabar]

Bush was/is an amnesty supporter. I guess he figured that the illegals will become US citizens someday so why not treat them like that now. Bush was even worse than Clinton when it came to enforcing our immigration laws. Obama is Bush on steroids when it comes to immigration.

[NormsRevenge]

.. and folks wonder why God allows so much death, destruction, disease and drought on so many that pursue democracy. just sending a message?

as it was in the days of old, so it is now.. OPM. the manna of the Left

[mark1973]

A Big Giant thanks to George W.Bush and Barack Obama, two marxist,New World Order proponents,for this monstrosity. sarc.

[P.O.E.]

Simple - folks take the cash option from their EBT cards, go to the casino, drink beer, which is made of grain, which is grown by farmers.

See? /s

[dalebert]

It’s hopeless..Obama has bought all the stupid votes which out number republicans.. its over

[La Lydia]

This was the doing of then chairman of the Senate Ag committee, the open borders Socialist Tom Harkin, and his staff director Mark Halverson. Lugar was the ranking member. A Confederacy of Squishes.

[jjotto]

Farmer end up with maybe 10-15% of dollars spent on food. “Ya could look it up!”

[Absolutely Nobama]

“Sessions also noted that the requirement, which allowed only US citizens to acquire food stamps, was eliminated in 2002, under President George Bush”

---

Just dandy.”

Is it me, or do skeletons keep falling out of W’s closet ? Medicare Part D, TARP, Benedict Roberts, the light bulb ban, and now this.

I’ll always be thankful for the job Bush did on the War on Terror, but crap like this is unforgivable in my book.

[aquila48]

“Farmer end up with maybe 10-15% of dollars spent on food.”

Whatever % they make is beside the point (and fixed). The important point is their volume goes up.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Nachum.

It's the Obamacare, stupid! If deficits are an issue *Obamacare is THE issue, not compact fluorescent bulbs, not ethanol One-half gallon of oil in the form of pesticides per bushel of corn would cost $2 to $3 per bushel. If this were true -- and it clearly isn't -- it should be enough to illustrate to literally anyone that the price of petroleum is quite literally the ONLY thing driving corn prices. And this idiotic piece of agitprop -- from a hydrogen "energy" advocacy site -- also shows the guy in the encounter suit spraying chemical fertilizer, a sight that I've never been privileged to see, what with me *growing up on a farm*. The Bum Rap on Biofuels [2008] Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed [2008] Oil Price Pressure Driving Global Switch to Biofuels [2006]