Wrong way on farm subsidies. Daren Bakst writes:
How would it look though if conservatives reform the food stamp safety net and as a result improve the well-being of the poor by reducing dependence on government, yet at the same time they expand the farm safety net and increase dependence on government?
This appears to be a real possibility. […]
According to United States Department of Agriculture data, large family farms, which received 32 percent of commodity payments and 34 percent of crop insurance indemnities in 2016, had a median household income of $347,000 (about six times the median income for all U.S. households) and median household net worth of $3.8 million (about 39 times the median wealth for all U.S. households). […]
In the last farm bill, Congress got rid of the direct payment program, which provided subsidies to farmers regardless of need. Instead of stopping there, Congress unwisely created two new commodity programs called the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs.
These two programs are costing more than the direct payments program. This would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Plus, these programs are costing about 80 percent more than projected, with a cost overrun of about $13 billion.
What does the House agriculture committee farm bill do? It would make changes so that Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage payments would be made more likely, not less likely.
[Daren Bakst, “This Is a Bad Look: In Current Farm Bill, Conservatives Prop Up Rich Farmers,” The Daily Signal, May 10]
