Farm bill: Denver Post
"Farm Bill is a Loser for Taxpayers, Environment”
More editorial opinion condemning the Senate's gift to the subsidy lobby.
The $286 billion farm bill approved last week by the U.S. Senate is an insult to American taxpayers and a threat to the environment. If it reaches President Bush's desk in its current indefensible form, he should keep his promise to veto it.Space doesn't allow listing all the reasons Bush should reject this woeful bill, so let's start with the fact that it would give welfare to millionaires.
Full editorial in the jump.
Farm bill is a loser for taxpayers, environment
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 12/18/2007 07:48:24 PM MST
The $286 billion farm bill approved last week by the U.S. Senate is an insult to American taxpayers and a threat to the environment. If it reaches President Bush's desk in its current indefensible form, he should keep his promise to veto it.
Space doesn't allow listing all the reasons Bush should reject this woeful bill, so let's start with the fact that it would give welfare to millionaires.
As passed by the Senate, your hard-earned tax dollars would go to agri-businessmen who earn as much as $2.5 million a year in adjusted gross income. The Senate's only concession toward curbing this welfare for the rich was to lower that cap to $750,000 in 2010 — nearly four times as high as the $200,000 ceiling Bush had sought.
Those numbers refer to income limits on those farmers eligible for taxpayer handouts, not to the size of the giveaways themselves. A separate effort to scale back those subsidies from the current maximum of $360,000 to $250,000 was also defeated by a vote of 56-43.
We should specify that vote was 56 in favor of limiting subsidies, and just 43 against such a limit. The pork barrelers stacked the deck against the reform amendments by requiring them to garner 60 votes to pass instead of the usual 51-vote majority.
As Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group, which supported the defeated reforms, said, "This whole thing was rigged to benefit the subsidy lobby."
Very well, it's time to turn the tables and require the wastrel lobby to get a two-thirds majority before it can raid your pocketbook.
Given that the final measure cleared the Senate on a 79-14 vote, it may look like the big spenders could override such a veto. But a closer look gives hope for reformers. Colorado Republican Wayne Allard, for example, supported most reform efforts while Democrat Ken Salazar voted to keep giving welfare to millionaires. Allard approved the final bill, but we are confident he would join other fiscal conservatives and environmentally conscious senators to uphold a veto.
Then, the wastrel lobby can finally be forced to compromise and end the shameful practice of welfare for millionaires.
