Spending Cuts Outweigh Farm Subsidies For Rural Constituents
February 17, 2012 by Personal Liberty News Desk
The promotion of farm subsidies was once a common move for rural members of Congress who were seeking re-election, but this year the call for spending cuts may affect the push for the agricultural industry by these lawmakers, The Associated Press reported.
According to the news outlet, lawmakers are approaching the writing of the next five-year farm bill with caution, and agribusiness and farmers’ lobbyists are preparing for the worst. With little support for spending in Washington, subsidy cuts in the billions of dollars are on the table.
The recent success in the agricultural industry hasn’t helped, as the farm bill may lose support due to the fact that many people feel farmers are doing fine.
“What’s different this time is we have very strong commodity prices,” Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, told the AP. “And that is generally not a really good time to write a farm bill because everyone who is projecting the future says, ‘Oh, this is going to last forever.’”
Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture spending would rise 2.5 percent in the next year, before crop subsidies would kick in and provide aid to farmers.
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