American Consequences - June 2018

THE 2018 FARM BILL

Well, we’re talking in terms of the “Yacht Purchase Rule” here – “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.” Prepare yourself for the kind of numbers that have a Hale-Bopp Comet tail of zeros behind them. The farm bill, in its current form (and, remember, it will get worse), calls for five- year appropriations costing $421.5 billion, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. However , the CBO traditionally uses a 10- year time frame to estimate the costs of any authorization bill containing government mandates to spend money. This is because they’re not dummies at the CBO, and they know full well that government mandates, once instituted, never go away. Thus the CBO predicts that the long-term cost of the 2018 farm bill will be $867 billion. Yes, the $867 billion is stretched out over a decade. This is like the government saying, “We’re going to cut off all your toes, but that’s OK, we’re only going to cut off one a year.” The damage to taxpayers, no matter how you spread it, is $867 billion. The Impartial Reader interjects: But farming is Indeed, we’ve obeyed it too well – 39.6% of American adults are obese, needing to lose at least 30 pounds. We have obeyed the Biblical injunction to feed the hungry.

vital to the American economy... Or not. Although there are 2.1 million farms and ranches in America, less than 2% of the U.S. workforce is employed in agriculture. American agricultural output is 1% of GDP. Impartial Reader: But farmers are poor, hard- working folks... Hard-working? Yes. Poor? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), farm and ranch household median income is $76,250 compared to the national household median income of $59,039. The USDA says the average farm is 444 acres. Bloomberg says the average price of agricultural land is $3,080 per acre. To “buy the farm” nowadays means, on average, $1,367,520. Impartial Reader: Wait a minute! Divide $867 billion by 2.1 million. Are you saying these rich hicks are going to get $412,857.14 apiece?... I am NOT saying that. More than 75% of farm bill spending has absolutely nothing to do with farming. Of the farm bill’s $867 billion, $664 billion will be spent on what used to be called food stamps, which is now called “Nutrition,” which is mainly the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” or “SNAP,” which is food stamps. When the Food Stamp Act of 1964 was passed, the USDA estimated that the original 350,000 program participants might eventually grow in number to 4 million and that the annual cost of providing Food Stamps could go up – up to almost $3 billion (adjusted for inflation).

60 June 2018

Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker