Seeking Meaningful Budget Cuts

The decisions we make in this time of economic and budget crisis define who we are as a nation and shape our future. Cuts will be made in farm and rural spending. The most important decision is how to cut.

First and foremost, Congress should put effective and meaningful caps on payments to the nation’s largest farms – payments they use to drive smaller operations out of business.

There are practical options for reducing mega farm payments that together would save billion, including:

  • The Grassley Johnson Rural America Preservation Act. It closes loopholes and makes the existing limits real.
  • Phasing down subsidies on federal crop insurance for the largest farms. Overall, the government covers about 60 percent of the cost of crop insurance. If one company farmed the whole country, it would get fully subsidized crop insurance costs on every acre.
  • Put “counter cyclical limits” on direct payments – the payments made every year regardless of crop prices. In years when crop prices are high and the farm does not suffer a crop failure, payments would be capped at a lower level.

These options are far more effective than the recently proposed alternative of denying payments to people with incomes over $200,000. That won’t touch most mega farms. They can keep their taxable income below the limits by buying more land, livestock and equipment and by splitting income between each of the spouses and the farm corporation. It won’t hurt investors in farmland. They will let their farmer tenants collect the payments and then capture them through high dollar cash rents.

If Congress protects powerful big farm interests, it will be left to short-change investments in the future of rural America and make deeper cuts on mid-size farms. Rural development programs that support small business and small towns have already been cut by close to one-third. The House of Representatives recently proposed eliminating the 2007 farm bill program that funds loans, training and technical assistance for rural micro businesses.

Programs to support beginning farmers are in jeopardy. And at the center of the cross hairs are conservation programs that reward farmers and ranchers who protect America’s land and water, especially the Conservation Stewardship Program. Farmers who are doing things right on the land will be denied their just reward.

Addressing the budget crisis requires setting priorities that reflect the common good of Americans and help secure our future. It’s time to stop mega subsidies for mega farms. We cannot afford them, and they harm rural America. No budget legislation that protects them and instead cuts investments in rural America’s future deserves our support or our respect.

Agree or disagree? Send your comments to Chuck Hassebrook, chuckh@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 ext. 1018.

Comments

Scale back Ag subsidies

For the corn and soybean producer, times could not be better. Now is the time to dramatically cut back on both the crop insurance, direct subsidies and the "counter-cyclical" subsidies. They are just not needed. Farmers in the corn belt are so well off now, that the banks in their small towns are unable to make capital acquisition and crop loans. They are all paying cash and having to buy new equipment, just to avoid taxes. The big winners in this time are Monsanto and the other GMO seed producers. They have no shortage of money, as the producers will pay whatever they ask. The second tier getting wealthy are the fertilizer, chemical and service firms. Farmers have so much extra cash, that they can pay others to do their work. They do not quibble with the nitrogen and urea fertilizer prices, which should be dropping, but are not. These are all made from cheap and abundant natural gas, but the willingness to pay whatever is asked is holding the firm's profits high. The last impact of the subsidies is on the family farmer, who finds his neighbors selling at record per acre prices and sees his property tax burden rising sharply. All are the direct result of these subsidies. Grassley's bill WILL NOT change this scenario. No income cap will work, unless it is on gross income and the dodge will be to set up multiple holding companies or corporations for each farm owned or leased by the mega farming entities. You only control the money going to the mega farmer by cutting out the entire subsidy scenario for all farmers, until price competition and markets are allowed to normalize AND a rapid and uncontrolled price drop for corn and soy follows.

While I agree with that,

While I agree with that, those corporations have input prices too, that are going up in the face of inflation as well. Most of those corporations are publicly traded. If you think they are cutting such a fat hog, go ahead and invest your own money in them. I doubt you will be retiring to Maui anytime soon. The term "Mega Producer" keeps getting thrown around in propaganda from the CFRA. I have asked for a definition of Mega Producer several times and have never gotten 4G LTE Phones response. I have come to the understanding, that in today's entitlement society, that "Mega Producer", "Wealthy" or "Big Corporate" is anyone who you perceive as having more than you! nixigewpr gh chideleou jtf bucheline dh lanpisufv

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Budget Cuts?

I found most of the earlier comments laughable. It seemed almost complaining that farmers & livestock producers are experiencing good times. It is fairly obvious that the comments come from somebody who does not make a living in production agriculture. Producers are not needing banks as much? Really? Most inputs have inflated upwards of 30% in the last year. This inflation has eaten up a significant part of those record prices that you assume have gone into the pockets of those of us in production agriculture. Granted if you are sharp, you have still put some of that back in your pockets, but record commodity prices basically mean that you are now laying out record capital for nearly the same margin. In short it costs more to play the game than ever before and banks are still very much a part of this scenario. The banks margins are obviously lower as the interest rates are low. Cash is a commodity as well. To go under the assumption that producers are just paying whatever seed and chemical companies ask for on inputs is the most absurd thing I have ever heard! We have competition in those agri-support businesses and I do not know of a single producer that doesn't say "Is this the best price you can give me?" and most check with the competition. Those corporations have input prices too, that are going up in the face of inflation as well. Most of those corporations are publicly traded. If you think they are cutting such a fat hog, go ahead and invest your own money in them. I doubt you will be retiring to Maui anytime soon. The term "Mega Producer" keeps getting thrown around in propaganda from the CFRA. I have asked for a definition of Mega Producer several times and have never gotten a response. I have come to the understanding, that in today's entitlement society, that "Mega Producer", "Wealthy" or "Big Corporate" is anyone who you perceive as having more than you! How sad, Envy is one of the 7 deadly sins, and in this case, it is becoming deadly to our nation. Now onto farm subsidies, I agree with the earlier comment that we should wean ourselves of these programs. These were mostly put in place to leave a floor under commodity prices to ensure we have an ample and safe food supply, the greatest part of national security. However, subsidies have become a major part of figuring the value of land and have thus helped raise property taxes. In a free capitalistic society, you cannot simply penalize the successful! If you are going to take away subsidies, they need to be taken away from everyone, not just the "Mega Producers". If you trace the roots of a "Mega Producer", odds are they started as a small family operation that went through a lot of hard work to become larger and just being larger does not inherently insure success either!

Response

I believe there is a legitimate purpose for farm programs - to protect opportunity for small and mid size farms and keep agriculture in more hands. America and its communities are stronger when farms and businesses are in many hands, rather than the hands of a small elite. Eliminating farm programs will not achieve that objective. Wealth concentrates in the "free market" too. Nor will that objective be achieved by the farm program we have today, where the bigger the farm grows, the more money it gets from the government. However, a program with a hard cap on payments will strengthen the competitive position of small and mid size farms. The Grassley Johnson bill would change the dynamic in agriculture, because it closes the loopholes in farm payment limitations, as well lowering the limits.

I agree with the earlier

I agree with the earlier comment that we should wean ourselves of these programs. These were mostly put in place to leave a floor under commodity prices to ensure we have an ample and safe food supply, the greatest part of national security. However, subsidies have become a major part of figuring the value of land and have thus helped raise property taxes. ponturi . Wish all the best.

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Meaningful Budget Cuts

While I agree with that, those corporations have input prices too, that are going up in the face of inflation as well. Most of those corporations are publicly traded. If you think they are cutting such a fat hog, go ahead and invest your own money in them. I doubt you will be retiring to Maui anytime soon. The term "Mega Producer" keeps getting thrown around in propaganda from the CFRA. I have asked for a definition of Mega Producer several times and have never gotten 4G LTE Phones response. I have come to the understanding, that in today's entitlement society, that "Mega Producer", "Wealthy" or "Big Corporate" is anyone who you perceive as having more than you!

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