# Farm bill defeated



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

From today's St Louis Post Dispatch:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/defeat-of-farm-bill-a-blow-to-historic-alliance-in/article_b7961ed5-c825-5227-920f-01d26b780c9e.html

Good, simple explanation of why the farm bill is tied to food stamps.

Yesterday's topic at lunch in town: Why isn't there mandatory drug testing for food stamp recipients? Hmmmm!

Ralph


----------



## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

*I* believe some states have tried the drug testing thing. The problem is that it actually cost more to implement the testing program & test then it does to just pay the druggies.

Our society & goverment is so screwed up it isn't even funny.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Fowllife said:


> *I* believe some states have tried the drug testing thing. The problem is that it actually cost more to implement the testing program & test then it does to just pay the druggies.
> 
> Our society & goverment is so screwed up it isn't even funny.


Actually I remember that, cost more to drug test than what it saved by disqualifying those that were using so they stopped testing. Out of principle if I have to piss in a cup to get a job, you should have to piss in cup to get my money. Then deduct the cost of the drug test from the first month of benefits. Don't like it? Then go get a job.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> From today's St Louis Post Dispatch:
> 
> http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/defeat-of-farm-bill-a-blow-to-historic-alliance-in/article_b7961ed5-c825-5227-920f-01d26b780c9e.html
> 
> ...


The Farm Bill should be renamed the Food Stamp bill. Free or reduced cost school lunches are also paid for out of the Farm Bill if I understand correctly. This way a lot of idjits in this country will never know what their free programs are actually costing and can instead blame the billions spent on those rich greedy farmers who are poisoning our environment. Which in itself is ludicrous, far as I know those rich sob farmers have to live on this planet along with their kids and grandkids.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

To be quite honest I didn't know the Farm Bill was even tied to Food Stamps. The part I can't figure out is why the Gov't is paying subsidies to farms and farmers that are profitable, it says that in the article linked above? The representatives I saw interviewed in the news last night said the cuts weren't deep enough, that's the main reason many voted against it. If they get a tax break for buying equipment that's one thing but just hand them money, I just don't get it. My wife and son checked into the farm subsidy program some time ago and both came to the conclusion that it's not worth it and why should they expect the Gov't to just hand them some money whether they needed it or not. I've looked over some of the people that receive subsidies and I'll darned if I can figure out why some of them are getting money. I have relatives getting money and why I have know idea, they have more money than they could ever spend at their age. I noticed some of the one's on the list are the most vocal about people getting Gov't handouts of any kind. Many of the one's getting the most money take the worst care of their equipment, I've never figured that one out but I guess when you're getting $50K-$100K a year you can just buy something new every 3-5 years rather than take care of something. I'm not saying farmers don't work hard, the operation here has been here for over a 100 years and it's not lasted this long by 4 generations of sitting on their butt.

Want to see what your relative, friend or neighbor is getting, check it out you might be surprised.

http://farm.ewg.org/


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

mlappin said:


> The Farm Bill should be renamed the Food Stamp bill. Free or reduced cost school lunches are also paid for out of the Farm Bill if I understand correctly. This way a lot of idjits in this country will never know what their free programs are actually costing and can instead blame the billions spent on those rich greedy farmers who are poisoning our environment. Which in itself is ludicrous, far as I know those rich sob farmers have to live on this planet along with their kids and grandkids.


I think you're right. I did a little research after reading your replay and I have to say I had no idea that 78% of the Farm Bill went to nutrition programs, I assume that includes Food Stamps, WIC and other various programs. My wife worked for a while at a grocery store or I would have never known what the WIC program was about. I realize that there are times in some peoples lives when they may need some help but permanent help to buy food I don't think so. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that there should be restrictions on what can be bought with food stamps like the WIC program does.

I think the farm program and the Food stamp/Nutrition program should be separated it only makes the farmers look bad by lumping the two together. I may look deeper to see if it's always been together or if the farm lobby agreed to it at some point in order to get what they wanted.


----------



## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

You have to remember the farm program payments have strings attached.

I'd just as soon they did away with them totally.But then they wouldn't have control.

I'm not allowed to plant annual crops on Prior Converted Wetlands..It would be nice to rotate crops on those fields but they will pull my DCP payment on ALL of my farms if I did.

By the way they have been trimming down the payments for yrs.And if you look someone up on EWG they lump 1995-2012 together.You can go farther into it and find the annual payments.Most payments are linked to corn.Beans are less,Wheat and oats are way less,forage is 0.

My payment last yr divided by total acres is less then $10 per acre.Then pay Obammy back 35% in taxes so its under $7 per acre.


----------

