On The Dole: American Farmers and Agricultural Subsidies

In the last few years, there have been increasingly strident attacks on waste in the Federal budget. In response the GOP leadership has proposed a $758 milliom cut to funding of WIC, a nutrition program for pregnant women and their children. Perhaps the House should aim their budgetary scalpel at the production end of the food cycle. From 1995-2009, the Federal government paid out $250 billion in agricultural subsidies. "From 1995-2009 the largest and wealthiest top 10 percent of farm program recipients received 74 percent of all farm subsidies with an average total payment over 15 years of $445,127 per recipient ." Kansas, #6 on the list, has received $13.5 billion from 1995-2009. Douglas County received $49.8 million in that same period. A very prominant local developer is #26 on the list of the highest payments, at $288,989. A prominant architect is #119, receiving $69,174 over the same 14 year period. I'm quite curious what crops these gentlemen are growing. Perhaps greenbacks? People of all political persuasions are aware there is waste in the Federal budget. Where the sides differ is in how we define waste. Feeding children, to my mind, is not wasteful; subsidizing corporate farming is. Sources: http://farm.ewg.org/ http://www.governing.com/blogs/fedwatch/proposed-GOP-cuts.html