Congress To Help Out Poor People

Congress To Help Out Poor People

You know, the ones with adjusted gross incomes of $1.5 million. From the May 15, 2008 New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly approved a $300 billion farm bill on Wednesday afternoon, making it probable that the measure will become law despite President Bush’s anticipated veto.
The 318-to-106 vote, far over the two-thirds needed to override a veto, sends the bill to the Senate, where the measure is also expected to have veto-proof support. Although predictions can be dicey in political Washington, the measure’s strength in the Senate has been seen as even more robust than in the House.

I've never found the arguments for farm price supports even slightly persuasive. If these programs were targeting farmers who were struggling to feed their kids, I would find the program foolish but at least built on concern for the poor. But look at who gets the government's help:

A big sticking point is how much money would go to wealthy farmers. Married farmers with joint incomes of up to $1.5 million a year and individuals who make more than $750,000 could qualify for some crop subsidies. The Bush administration has called for much lower limits that would deny subsidies to anyone with an average adjusted gross income above $200,000 a year.

This is an outrage. Oh yes, one of the apologists for this bill explains:

But Representative Kenny Hulshof, a Republican who is a farmer in Missouri, defended the bill, asserting that the costs of farming are up as well as incomes. “If farming were easy, Congressmen would do it,” he said.

Someone whose income is $1.5 million a year almost certainly has a farm worth many millions of dollars. (And if not, that means that that their farm has 50% or better annualized return on investment--which would make farming "easy.") Why are the rest of us subsidizing multimillionaires?

These are the times that I get so angry that I can't see straight. This is one of the costs of our current tremendously corrupt system--redistributing wealth from people who make $50,000 a year to people who make $1.5 million a year.

Even worse: farm prices are going up so fast that they are outpacing inflation, as this May 14, 2008 Idaho Statesman article points out.

And any Democrat who tries to tell me that their party wouldn't do this is a liar. The Democrats control this Congress:

Only 15 Democrats opposed the bill, as did 91 Republicans.

This is the sort of socialist redistribution of wealth upward that can drive otherwise sensible people to anarchism.