Unfortunately these lines say it all:
increase crop insurance subsidies for the largest and most*/profitable mega
farms
/*
This is "agribusiness" not traditional farming.
In other words, the bill would give unlimited taxpayer dollars to farmers
And this line besmirches farmers instead of "agribusinessmen" and
corporate farming.
The family farm is dead and has been dying since the end of WW2. With
the attacks on normal farm practices (now called organic) from the
petro-chemical industry through the use of laboratory fertilizers and
pesticides and the actions of insurers to insure those methods and not
"organic" methods as well as bank loans not forthcoming for the same
reasons, we have a continuation of the same practices at the expense of
the public dollar and health.
D.
On 15/07/2012 3:28 PM, michael gurstein wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Portside Moderator [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 3:04 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [SPAM] Insurance for Corn, Not Kids?
Insurance for Corn, Not Kids?
by Scott Faber
Environmental Working Group - Agriculture July 10, 2012
http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2012/07/insurance-for-corn-not-kids/
On the same day that the House will vote to end health insurance subsidies
for low income Americans, the House Agriculture Committee will vote to
increase crop insurance subsidies for the largest and most profitable mega
farms - and will cut nutrition assistance programs to pay for it.
Many of the same House Agriculture Committee members who will vote tomorrow
(Wednesday) on a proposal to increase crop insurance subsidies voted against
the Affordable Care Act in 2009, including Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and
Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN). Other members of the House
Agriculture Committee who are expected to support unlimited insurance
subsidies for corn and cotton farmers tomorrow but voted against health
insurance subsidies for low income Americans in 2009 include Reps. Tim
Holden (D-PA), Larry Kissell (D-NC), and Mike McIntyre (D-NC), as well as
Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Steve King (R-IA), Randy
Neugebauer (R-TX), Michael Conaway (R-TX), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Jean
Schmidt (R-OH), Glenn Thompson (R-PA), and Thomas J. Rooney (R-FL).
Unlike the health insurance subsidies included in the Affordable Care Act,
crop insurance subsidies are not subject to any limits on who can receive
subsidies or the amount they can receive. As a result, 26 policyholders each
collected more than $1 million in insurance subsidies in 2011 and more than
10,000 each collected more than $100,000, according to an Environmental
Working Group analysis. Roughly 30,000 policyholders collected 42 percent of
all premium subsidies in 2011.
Rather than place reasonable limits on crop insurance, the Lucas-Peterson
proposal that will be considered tomorrow by the House Agriculture Committee
actually expands crop insurance subsidies - at a cost of more than $9
billion. To help pay for this expansion and meet deficit reduction targets,
the Lucas-Peterson proposal will cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, known as SNAP, by $16.1 billion and cut environmental programs by
$6.1 billion.
In other words, the bill would give unlimited taxpayer dollars to farmers
who are already making record profits and less support to hungry kids who
depend on federal assistance for food, and to programs that keep drinking
water clean.
Reasonable crop insurance reforms like payment limits and means testing -
which already apply to SNAP and to health insurance subsidies - could save
more than $20 billion when combined with cuts in subsidies to crop insurance
companies. But such reforms were not considered by the committee leaders and
face an uphill fight on the floor of the House.
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