The other day we talked about the farm bill on these pages and I said, "Democrats hate it because of the corporate welfare. Republicans hate it because of the SNAP handouts." But the latest rendition was defeated for neither of those reasons. Enough Republicans were willing to hold it hostage in return for consideration of an immigration bill. Defeating a big spending bill is a good thing, even if for the wrong reason.
Chris Edwards provides a scathing editorial about it in That the farm bill even got to a vote speaks volumes about GOP:
That the farm bill even got to the House floor shows how uninterested Republican leaders are in tackling rising budget deficits.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would not have saved any money — instead, it would have continued annual spending of about $20 billion on farm subsidies and $65 billion on food stamps. But with today’s strong economy, Congress should be trimming both farm and food subsidies.
The only conservative element in the House bill was a tightening of work requirements for food stamp recipients. But the savings from that reform would have been offset by higher spending on federal job training activities, and those activities have a poor track record.
Mr. Edwards notes the hypocrisy of the idea that welfare should be a short term safety net yet the corporate welfare should be long term. More:
Yet, the House bill keeps the agriculture subsidies flowing as an entrenched part of the farm lifestyle — a lifestyle, it should be noted, that is very prosperous. The average income of farm households was $117,918 in 2016, which was 42 percent higher than the $83,143 average of all U.S. households.
Furthermore, the bulk of subsidies go to the largest and wealthiest farmers. A recent study found that 60 percent of crop subsidies from the three main farm programs go to the largest 10 percent of farms. Over time, the high-end concentration of farm subsidies has increased, so reform is more needed than ever.
It will be hard to wean long term farm welfare recipients off the dole. But we need to try. Drain the swamp, indeed.
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11:02 AM 5/23/2018
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