H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°Let’s talk about welfare. Neither the kind that was “reformed” a few years ago in this state, nor the corporate kind that keeps big business from having to pay its fair share in taxes. No, I’m talking about the most pernicious kind of welfare of all — farmer welfare.
Probably not what you expected.
If Social Security is the “third rail of American politics” (touch it, you die), then farm subsidies are the sacred cow of Midwestern, Southern and Great Plains politics.
In his most recent State of the Union speech, President Bush made a bold statement. He said he would cut or eliminate 150 government programs that were underperforming or redundant. This drew great cheers. If they were watching at home, America’s farmers probably didn’t think they had much to fear. But they do.
Two forces are at work in eliminating farm subsidies.
First is the domestic budget crisis. The $19 billion a year spent on farm subsidies is tough to swallow when we have a $427 billion budget deficit. With his Social Security privatization scheme at risk of never performing as planned because of the hulking budget deficit, some real, actual cuts are going to have to be made by Bush. This from a president who has never passed on a spending bill in his career.
As a result, the White House leaked word that farm subsidies will be cut 5 percent, or $500 million for next year and $5.7 billion over 10 years.
The second force at work here is our commitment to international trade agreements. Many developing countries do not like the subsidies American farmers receive, driving global commodity prices into the cellar. Last summer, the United States lost a WTO trade negotiation with Brazil and West African nations over cotton subsidies. As a result, cuts in U.S. farm subsidies were perhaps all but inevitable.
Who gets subsidies? The majority of food grown by American farmers isn’t subsidized. The two crops that receive the majority of farm subsidies are corn and cotton. Corn is the single largest crop in America. It covers 78 million acres in area, and 1.4 million American farmers received subsidies for growing corn. In Dane County alone, farmers have received $104 million in subsidies since 1995.
Yet, on average, 80 percent of corn producers receive around $50 a month from the federal government. The largest producers are those who receive the most subsidies. In corn, that’s the top 4 percent who have taken in $65 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars, averaging $59,000 a year in support.
In one category, farm subsidies have thrown the market entirely out of whack. Cotton is the highest-subsidized crop in this country. It’s why we lost our WTO negotiations. The top 3 percent of cotton producers in this country receive half of all cotton subsidies, averaging $1 million a year in subsidies.
This sort of distortion of the market is done for a number of reasons. It smoothes out price volatility for the American farmer, it destroys the developing world’s ability to sell cotton on the international market, and it’s pure old-fashioned political patronage. Even the Government Accountability Office said farmers use many “schemes and devices” to obtain more subsidies than they should.
In the 1930s, farm subsidies were an important factor in keeping Americans fed and clothed. Since then, they’ve been nearly impossible to cut, and we can’t afford them.
Today, the largest producers able to best manipulate the system receive the most largesse. The small family-owned farm is pushed out by plunging commodity prices and soaring land prices.
The reality is farm subsidies are a distortion, favor the huge agri-business farms and encourage overproduction and environmental degradation. It’s laudable that Bush wants to cut them (did I just say that?), but the political reality is that this will be fought tooth and nail by Southern and Plains states senators and congressional representatives.
What program won’t be getting the chop? The Milk Income Loss Compensation subsidy, which does just what it says, was praised by Bush in the 2004 campaign right here in Wisconsin. It didn’t deliver the state as hoped, but Bush won’t be cutting it.
Not all sacred cows get put on the chopping block.
Rob Deters ([email protected]) is a third-year law student.
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Damn Deter, I am impressed. I still hate your writing style, but you raised some great points. The farm subsidies are bullshit. 3L
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Holy crap! I agree with Deters!
It is an unfortunate fact, but most familiy farms are simply too inefficient to compete with larger, corporate farms. The only reason that many of them are still around is due to various subsidies.
Perhaps the most egregarious of all subsidies is ethanol. Besides the simply problem with paying subsidies to farmers, ethanol is incredibly inefficient. In fact, it requires 70% more energy to produce one gallon of ethanol than is in the final ethanol product itself. And those are fossil fuels being wasted to produce it.
Additionally, subsidized corn production for use in ethanol results in higher food costs across the board, hurting the poorest of Americans.
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Wow - I also am surprised that I agree with Dieters. It is a good idea, but how can we do it?
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OMG, I agree with Deters too!
Is that one of the signs of the Apocalypse?
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That is good Deters, we should cut farm subsidies, but are you willing to cut other wasteful government spending also?
How about section 8 funding that rewards welfare queens for having more babies that they can’t pay for? Maybe a limit of 2 kids while on section 8? How about a cap on spending increases for new school building which is being pushed every year by the education racketeers, while the quality of education gets worse. I doubt it, because those are leftist sacred cows. Deters, this article is good, but you need to cut all goverment waste, not just the waste that benefits people you don’t like, such as farmers.
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I agree with the above poster that the welfare system needs to be overhauled, but I think you are confused about what Section 8 is. It is government subsidized housing, and has more to do with low-income than how many children you have.
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Rob Deters here -
Thanks for everyone actually giving me props for agreeing with me today. I didn't write this article to gain respect, it's just an area of the budget that is clearly run rampant. See, as a Democrat, and heartily so, I don't think the government is inherently wasteful or obstructionist. I just think that plenty of times there is room to remove some fat. But, I'm hearing it in the above posts that which frustrates me. Welfare queens? What a retro, and racist comment. Honestly, research the facts. The "welfare queens" created in the 80's by the Reagan White House didn't exist. They're a boogeyman created by the right to demonize welfare in general. As for limiting the number of children to welfare recipients...how are you going to do that with abstinence only sex education, no abortion and cuts in access to education? Are you going to provide women's health services to the poor instead? Yeah, right. Oh, and building schools...how terrible. And the solution for the quality of our education? Testing? Doesn't work. Flat out. Look at Texas. Besides with TABOR in the works in this state, you can kiss your quality education goodbye. I'm rational. I know that things in our budget are pork. It's obvious and I declare a pox on everyone's house for putting pork in the budget. But let's try a mind numbing $702 BILLION Medicare tab and a $150 BILLION war in Iraq, both of which are not included in the current budget. I just wish that when Republicans complain about finances, they would look to their priorities and spending and realize who is really breaking the bank. -=Rob Deters=-IP hash: 97c10822
Rob, I just read your article and I truly believe that you are sexier than that dork Chris Dols. You reading this, Chris? Your are a dork! A total dork! Rob Deters is a lot of things you’ll never be: smart, sexy, a great cook, a snappy dresser, a steamy kisser, not to mention an exceptional golfer.
So stop boring us to death with your secret hatred of your mother! She never abandoned you, you abandoned her…and reality.
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Steamy kisser and exceptional golfer? That’s pretty damn funny.
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I know Rob and it is quite a stretch to say he is an exceptional golfer. Perhaps you meant frisbee golf. Enjoyed the article - keep on writing!!
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Actually, Section 8 aid increases with the number of kids you have. So the poster that was talking about a cap was correct.
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Rob, how is the phrase “welfare queen” racist? Are you using the classic liberal trick of calling something racist rather than dealing with reality?