You don’t need to tell me about Nebraska corn farmers, I grew up the son of a cattleman and still live in north Missouri. Why don’t you focus on the 800B food stamps etc? That was my point, when it is called a farm bill, the farm subsidies are front and center, they should be separate bills, then neither would pass. What it’s really all about is that throwing the welfare into a farm bill guarantees ag state conservatives will be forced to vote for it. I can hardly be pissed at a farmer for wanting something passed that helps his income, but I can get pissed for adding 800B to a 40B bill just to use the name farm bill. Be mad about the big things, not hating farmers.
I agree the Farm Bill should be split - and I’ve always stated such. And I understand the coercion used in joining the two. However, you cannot sidestep the fact that BOTH parts amount to welfare. How is guaranteeing a farmers income not welfare. Does the income of any other profession or vocation have such a government guarantee attached to it? If I move from one area of the country to another, and, due to the local economy, there is a regional disparity in the salary or hourly wage paid for the same position, all else being equal, do I have recourse to government to cover my loss? No. There is no obligatory rule that says you must pay me whatever the shortfall from the national average that my profession earns. So, therefore, what the “helping farmer’s income” amounts to is welfare, or price fixing.
Same goes for government paying a farmer NOT to grow a specific crop. It’s total bullsh*t. It’s not right. And I’m sick of people attempting to defend it, because somehow we’re supposed to view farmers differently than every other American worker.