The government's basic job, as it has developed, is taking money away from some people and giving it to other people. And the difference between Democrats and establishment Republicans is that they prefer different people to benefit from the wealth redistribution.
That brings us to a Republican favorite, the farm bill. Daren Bakst of The Heritage Foundation explains how the farm bill was actually a blank check to farmers:
The 2014 farm bill eliminated the infamous direct payments program that gave farmers subsidies regardless of need. Instead of stopping there and making real progress, Congress created two new commodity programs, Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), which will likely cost as much as and probably far more than the direct payments program. The farm bill did not limit the liability that taxpayers will incur from these programs. In essence, Congress wrote a blank check.
The House overwhelmingly passed an amendment[1] to its original farm bill (a bill that was voted down) that would have capped the costs of these programs. The same provision was included in the farm bill[2] that was sent to the Senate for conference. Regrettably, the provision was removed during conference.
Both ARC and PLC should be eliminated. In the interim, Congress can adopt the House’s commonsense step and provide some reasonable limits to the taxpayers’ exposure.
Will they do it? Taking back something already promised will be difficult. Especially since, as we were told before passage of the 2014 farm bill, farmers plan their year based on what the farm bill says, i.e., on how best to maximize their income from government payouts.
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