How’s that swamp draining going?
The top 10 percent of the nation’s wealthiest farms receive 77 percent of the farm bill’s commodity subsidies. Meanwhile, as Caroline Kitchens wrote for the R Street Institute earlier this year:
To be eligible for [food stamps], Americans must show their gross monthly household income is below 130 percent of the poverty line. For a family of three in 2018, that means making less than $2,213 a month, for an annual income of just $26,600 a year.
By contrast, farmers are able to rake in taxpayer handouts regardless of the size and profitability of their operation. The federal crop insurance program subsidizes, on average, 62 percent of farmers’ insurance premiums, with no means test whatsoever. This allows the largest farm operations to receive virtually unlimited subsidies. Owners of mega-farms have received more than $1 million in subsidies from taxpayers. [R Street]
What kind of swamp draining is this? The Republican Party wants to make it harder for America’s poorest citizens to receive basic food stamp support — but they have no problem dishing out millions in taxpayer money, no strings attached, to the nation’s largest agribusinesses.
