TGHusker Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I decided to get on the Vox band wagon - I originally wanted to look up farm subsidies. The goggle/vox search brought up the 1st link below on entitlement reform. This topic, farm subsidies) is very important to us in the farm belt. I grew up in S. D. (Parker) on a farm and realizable the sustaining importance of govt subs to ag. Prior to Earl Butts being the Sec of Ag, under Nixon, farm prices were held artificially high via the diverted acre program. Some of you older guys may remember when the govt paid farms not to farm large tracks of land - reducing the supply thus keeping prices up. Butts come along and introduces the new policy in 1971-73 era and says we are going to be the breadbasket for the world and produce crops on every square inch of land. Thus Corn becomes King (see interesting video on King Corn - netflix has it - it will open eyes). My question is: should farm subsidies be on the table as an item to substantially cut so we can afford other 'entitlements' that the govt is promising and trying to deliver? Or is this too much of a political hot potato/sacred cow for any politician to address? http://www.vox.com/cards/entitlement-reform/what-is-entitlement-reform http://www.vox.com/cards/entitlement-reform/entitlement-programs-which-count Links to this on entitlement spending: http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33074.pdf Related: How much each country spends on food http://www.vox.com/2014/7/6/5874499/map-heres-how-much-every-country-spends-on-food PS: first time to see the Vox card system - pretty neat way of researching topics. Thanks Carl, Jr, Knapp and Tchu for pointing it out in other threads. I haven't had time to read through it all yet on this topic. Link to comment
darkhorse85 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. Link to comment
TGHusker Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. It is probably one of those truism of govt - once a program is initiated, it is very difficult to end it or modify it to a great extent. Too many people become dependent on it - politicians who want the votes and farmers/ag interest who want the govt cash. Link to comment
darkhorse85 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. It is probably one of those truism of govt - once a program is initiated, it is very difficult to end it or modify it to a great extent. Too many people become dependent on it - politicians who want the votes and farmers/ag interest who want the govt cash. Also politicians that are getting a nice chunk of cash in their pocket from the bill, too, and then you have people like my dad who didn't sleep in the 80's trying to figure out how to just get by. Link to comment
NUpolo8 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. If you'd like the Farm bill cut, you might want to look at the SNAP program, which is easily over 65% of the bill. Link to comment
darkhorse85 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. If you'd like the Farm bill cut, you might want to look at the SNAP program, which is easily over 65% of the bill. What are you getting at? Link to comment
NUpolo8 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. If you'd like the Farm bill cut, you might want to look at the SNAP program, which is easily over 65% of the bill. What are you getting at? I'm getting at the point that the SNAP program is the overwhelming majority of what makes up Farm Bill dollars. Any real cuts should come from there. Link to comment
darkhorse85 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 It's hard to judge context when reading sometimes. I couldn't tell if you were in support or opposition of SNAP by who you worded your first comment. Thanks for clearing that up. Link to comment
TGHusker Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is a lot of pork (pun not intended) in the Farm Bill every time it's revised. No matter what you cut out there will be people up in arms about it but a lot of the stuff in there is just ridiculous. Catfish oversight? Christmas Trees? Maple Syrup? The Farm Bill touches a lot of Senators and House reps in some way so getting massive cuts out of it will probably be a dead end for a long, long time. It does a lot of good but damnit if it doesn't make a lot of rich people richer as well. My head hurts when I read about it sometimes. It is probably one of those truism of govt - once a program is initiated, it is very difficult to end it or modify it to a great extent. Too many people become dependent on it - politicians who want the votes and farmers/ag interest who want the govt cash. Also politicians that are getting a nice chunk of cash in their pocket from the bill, too, and then you have people like my dad who didn't sleep in the 80's trying to figure out how to just get by. I hear that - I had gotten married and moved away by then but I know things were tough down on my dad's farm. They sold the homestead in 1994 (the acreage that had all of the buildings, home), moved to Sioux Falls. They still have the land and someone else is trying to make a living with it being a part of their crop land. Link to comment
NUpolo8 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 It's hard to judge context when reading sometimes. I couldn't tell if you were in support or opposition of SNAP by who you worded your first comment. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm not particularly in favor of it, but it ain't going away, and I think it should it's own bill. However, if that were to happen, neither Bill would pass, ever. Link to comment
darkhorse85 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 It's hard to judge context when reading sometimes. I couldn't tell if you were in support or opposition of SNAP by who you worded your first comment. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm not particularly in favor of it, but it ain't going away, and I think it should it's own bill. However, if that were to happen, neither Bill would pass, ever. Unfortunate, but true. Link to comment
TGHusker Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 SNAP has definitely ballooned in recent years. Sign of the economy. I really wish it was not apart of the farm bill - kind of blurs the line of what the ag bill is about. I'd prefer it be under HHS - but they didn't ask me from our most trusted wiki friends: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),[1] formerly known as the Food Stamp program, provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people living in the U.S. It is a federal aid program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), though benefits are distributed by each U.S. state's Division of Social Services or Children and Family Services. SNAP is the largest nutrition assistance program. 40 million Americans are estimated to have participated annually in the 21st century. The SNAP caseload had increased as a result of the Great Recession. Food prices rises have resulted in increased participation.[2] As an entitlement program, SNAP benefits cost $76.4 billion in fiscal year 2013 and supplied roughly 47.6 million Americans with an average of $133.08 per month in food assistance.[3] It is the largest nutrition program of the fifteen administered by FNS and is a critical component of the federal social safety net for low-income Americans.[4] The high cost of the SNAP program makes the Nutrition title the most expensive, and contentiously debated, title of the United States farm bill.[5] Link to comment
LukeinNE Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 The Farm Bill is a classic case of bipartisan interest group backscratching. The red state reps want the pork for their farmers. Liberals want their food assistance. So they pass it all in one package. Link to comment
Moiraine Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Corn should not be subsidized and SNAP should not be used for any junk food. Unfortunately the junk food makers have a lot of $. And they use a lot of corn. 1 Link to comment
tschu Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I have zero problems with SNAP in its current form Link to comment
Recommended Posts