Sowing The Seeds Of Cronyism Via The Farm Bill

If there were ever a time when the government should and could get out of the business of subsidizing relatively wealthy tax farmers at the expense of less wealthy taxpayers, that time is now. The need for serious action to reduce the federal deficit makes the need to reduce farm subsidies urgent. ~ Vince Smtih

Dr. Arthur C. Brooks, President, American Enterprise Institute: Next week Congress comes back from the August recess--with two weeks of session before farm programs expire. The farm lobby will be pushing hard for the House of Representatives to take up the farm bill, which proposes to spend almost a trillion dollars over the next decade. It's no exaggeration to say that this year's farm bill is an example of exactly what's wrong with Washington. It embodies the two biggest threats to American free enterprise today: the heavy-handed central planning of statism and competition-destroying beggar-thy-neighbor cronyism. From the $5.6 billion spent annually on crop insurance subsidies to the $1.3 billion we spend on milk subsidies, American agriculture policy is replete with cronyism and special-interest subsidies. It's not fair, it's bad economics, and it's bad policy. That's why AEI is building on our yearlong research project "American Boondoggle: Fixing the Farm Bill" by launching AmericanBoondoggle.com, a one-stop shop for AEI research on the farm bill. The site includes: a new two-minute video that explains how the farm bill is a giveaway to cronyist special interests, a quiz that lets you test your knowledge of the farm bill, and an interactive map that lets you see what the farm bill means for taxpayers in your state. We need your help to get the word out about what the farm bill means, so please share AmericanBoondoggle.com with friends, relatives, colleagues, and others who may be interested. Agriculture policy doesn't typically make headlines. That needs to change.

Educate Yourself What is the 2012 Farm Bill? Why Crop Insurance Costs Too Much? The Case for Increased Agricultural R&D Spending

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Tags: American Boondoggle, Fixing the Farm Bill, Farm Bill, Seeds, Cronyism, AEI, videos, American Enterprise Institute, Agriculture Welfare, government spending, big spending, videos To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!