Comments on: Millions In Subsidies For Profitable Corn?

Taxpayers Spend $2 Billion On Automatic Payments To Farmers, Whether They're Needed Or Not

[logicanada]

I wonder which Of Bush''s buddies got the contract for disbursement of these payments at ten times the normal federal rate?

[likeablunchs]

'' .. math sucks not for mathematicians shoot birds and build airplanes, but answers are not looked up and dialed in as are phone #s .. ''

'' .. happiness is a penny from each of 32 with empty shelves & pockets to purchase from one with full shelves & pockets a loaf sliced 34 ways, at least in some porns happiness is such .. ''

'' .. to use market share to raise armys to make folk pay for lunch is to pay for lunch while enemys raise armys to make folk pay for lunch .. ''

'' .. they were nice, said don''t kill and feed the world, gave me oatmeal oatmeal pies green beens word puzzles, i hung their pictures on my walls, my heart snared to do so, but they betrayed me, as do those obsessed with don''t kill / feed the world, they killed and they taxed the world, i found refuge with their enemys, and more with enemys enemys (also their enemys), for enemys enemys built for them great bouquets in retalition for the hate of their great bouquets given to those that love such bouquets, when my flowers asked why i hung their pictures on my walls, i remembered it was not my hate what drove me so but my love, i found it was not them i loved: they were few cuttings in a endless buffet, and it was the buffets i truly loved, and not the cuttings what had lead me to the buffets, it was not the betrayal i hated, but rather the pictures on my walls that could never be replaced, so eternity asked of me, which came first: eternity or you? .. ''

[whatithink-2009]

ttinsly,

Well said. I am getting very tired of people whining about socialism and free markets and no bailouts and no universal healthcare at the same time they support the above and other handouts to rich people.

[whatithink-2009]

nonyabiz2,

Yadda Yadda Yadda. Everything you just said is SOCIALISM, plain and simple. Where is the free market part of what you just said? As long as the handouts are going to you it can easily be explained. Most farmers that get these subsidies are massive corporations that have the funds already to make the investments. Then, you have rich people who buy cheap farms and do not really tend to them that get farming subsidies for just living on a farm! Ridiculous!

[denn034]

Pork spending like this really does need to end.

[ubrew12]

It''s called ''welfare for cold-warriors''
Farmers and defense workers are some of the most reliant republican voters out there, constantly voting to keep Republicans in office.

Republicans respond by cash-cowing both farmers and defense industries, as well as cutting taxes on the rich, their other major supporters.

Lesson: If you vote Republican you''ll pay lower taxes and get government welfare, even when you don''t need it. Otherwise, its the shaft of YOU!

[bcweitzel]

What they are failing to point out is that farm commodity prices have not kept up with inflation for over 20 years. Case in point- my family used to farm Alfalfa. Back in 1981 they were getting $80/ton for good hay. Jump forward to 2000 and they were getting $90/ton, despite the fact that on average the rate of inflation is 3% per year.

But our true rate of inflation is nowhere near 3% now, despite what they tell you on the evening news.

These subsidies go to offset the investment costs necessary to ramp up corn production for energy uses where investment capital is not available in the private sector. More corn? New $50k center pivot system, new pump. New set of hired help. More fertilizer needed. More to harvest, so $200k harvester. $450k goes away quickly when you start to realize the investment (and risk, where no bank will loan to a farmer for less than 4% over prime) that goes into the farm.

There is a reason why farms are collapsing, people, even during good times. It''s because it''s becoming economically, environmentally (in the political sense, not actual), and logistically impossible to operate a farm in the United States. And when you take away subsidies then be prepared to get more food contaminiation scares from other countries like Mexico.

[omega39-2009]

So when you city folk think its funny to tease and make fun of farmers, well, since its coming out of your pockets try to remember the old saying, "he that laughs last, laughs best."
Posted by Spectrum108

Except most of the money isn''t going to small family farms but to corporate owned subsides. Oh well, Haliburton, Betchel and Blackwater take our money and laugh at foolish taxpayer too.

[glossypan]

curse914 wrote.."Have you heard of the concept of Taker States?"

The idea that states with few people and a large area must have federal help with transportation and communication needs is rational.
However, many Senators from sparsely populated states withhold their votes for projects beneficial to large numbers of people until pet pork projects are funded. The famous Alaskan "Bridge To Nowhere" is a classic example. I have no idea how to stop these practices. Robert Byrd and Trent Lott, for example, have brought home huge sums of federal money for their states. The voters love tham for it. We need Jimminy Cricket. Lawmakers without consciences can make life miserable for taxpayers. By the way, I live in a large state with a population smaller than a NYC borough.

[prinzowhales]

curse914--I''m thinking my info came from--I think-- A HISTORY OF THE INCOME TAX...but I''m not sure if it was that or something else I was reading at the same time...casting about for the volume now...