George W. Bush tried to do it twice. President Barack Obama is now making his second attempt. Bush was not successful. Obama wasn’t either the first time. So, will the latest attempt to cut farm subsidies actually survive Congress? According to Associated Press scribe Steve Karnowski, the answer is likely “No.”Karnowski notes that President Bush went as far as to veto the 2008 Farm Bill twice, in part over his opposition to the farm subsidies the bill maintained, and both times Congress voted to override the veto. President Obama “tried reforming the system last year” only to be met with stiff resistance from the agricultural committees in Congress.
The only difference in those committees this year than from last year is that Senator Blanche Lincoln (AR) is now the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Chairman Lincoln is a proponent of the 2008 Farm Bill, so budget cuts to program in that bill will likely be met with resistance from the new chairman.
For his part, Karnowski reports that House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (MN) will “oppose significant changes to the current Farm Bill,” arguing that many of the criticisms of the Farm Bill and farm programs stem from ideology rather than policy considerations.
Outside groups are not so sure about the stances of the respective chairmen. Brian Riedl, an analyst for the Heritage Foundation, told Karnowski, ‘“Farm subsidies are America’s largest corporate welfare program [.]”’
Karnowski writes that critics believe there is no need for subsidies for “wealthy farmers” when many crop prices are high and the farmer’s income exceeds the national average. They also question why the majority of federal funds tend to go to growers of corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, and wheat, while poultry and livestock producers do not get subsidy checks, yet still manage to get by.
The 2008 Farm Bill “prohibited all subsidies to anyone whose non-farm adjusted gross income exceeds $500,000 . . .ended a major ‘direct payments’ program for anyone with more than $750,000 in adjusted gross income from farming.” Yet, there have been problems with the program as Karnowski reports that the US Department of Agriculture is working with the Internal Revenue Service to combat farm fraud. There are current suspicions that almost 3,000 millionaires who were not eligible received subsidy payments from 2003 to 2006.
Critics maintain the 2008 bill is not significantly different from the 2002 bill, and so similar problems exist. Yet Rob Joslin, president of the American Soybean Association thinks the farm bill is important to family farmers and should be allowed to ‘“run its course [.]”’
Either way, according to Karnowski’s article, it looks like the Obama budget’s plan for farm subsidy cuts may not survive the legislative process.
To read the Karnowski article click here.
To learn much more about the 2008 Farm Bill, and previous Farm Bills, visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s Farm Bill page on their website by clicking here.
To read a previous US Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog Post about the Obama budget proposal, click here.
To see previous blog posts that included the Farm Bill, click here.
Posted: 02/10/10
