--- Michael > For example, the recent "meager" farm subsidy bill > was $307 billion!
WHOA !! That figure is for a multi-year "farm bill" which covers way more that subsidies and is WAAAAAY high as regards actual payments to farmers in any given year - actually it is about 25 times higher than what farmers get in any one year -- but curiously it does seem to be about the value of the oil depletion allowance to big oil in any one year. That is why I said "meager in comparison." Michael - I can't believe you are you giving these crooks a break. Big Oil is operating as a criminal enterprise ! Price fixing is illegal in the USA and they are doing it with impunity with OPEC as their cover stroy. And they are still getting tax breaks on top of the gouging !! Here is the actual figures for what farmers get, as best I can tell. "Taxpayers shelled out $13.4 billion in farm subsidies to more than 1.4 million recipients in 2006," according to a new update of the Environmental Working Group's Farm Subsidy Database website. http://farm.ewg.org/farm/dp_analysis.php and this page says they got about 34 billion over three years, which is slightly less- but in no way did farmers get 300 billion per year! http://www.mulchblog.com/2007/06/full_disclosure_who_really_ben.php
