With many fiscal conservatives suffering anxiety attacks about the federal debt and a government's inability to do anything about it, the House passed Paul Ryan's budget proposal -- House Concurrent Resolution 25.
The part about farm subsidies is a little disappointing.
Instructions.--
(1) Committee on agriculture.--The Committee on Agriculture shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by at least $1,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2013 through 2023.
That's $1 billion over eleven years. Agriculture payments totaled $10.4 billion in 2011, and that was the lowest amount since 1997. (Source: UDSA, "Value of total direct government payments, by State, 1949-2011" spreadsheet.)
So, based on the 2011 payments, a $1 billion cut in spending over eleven years comes to a reduction of about 1% of the total. But the Resolution doesn't say they'll cut spending by $1 billion, it says they'll cut the deficit by that amount. No one really knows what they'll do with that. And since every Republican in the House voted YEA, it couldn't have worried them too much.
It's a start. And I suppose we should be grateful for that. But the solution is right under their noses: Free trade. Bryan Riley explains it very clearly in The Best Plan for Farmers and Ranchers: Free Trade. Simply end the subsidies, and the free market will produce winners all around. Farmers make money, taxpayers save money, and the hungry of the world get fed. It's win, win, win.
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