When politicians push hard for something, ramp up your skepticism level. Democrat? Republican? Doesn’t matter much.
The recent farm bill passed and went to the president, who vetoed it. So it went back to Congress, which over-rode the veto of this $300 billion bill, 316 – 108 in the House, 82 – 13 in the Senate.
So ask yourself, why do Democrats support these subsidies?
Democrats claim to be “for the little guy,†for equality. Trouble is, the federal government’s farm subsidies basically shovel money up the income ladder, not down it.
On average, farmers are better off than the people who pay the subsidies. Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation explains that most subsidies go overwhelmingly “to large commercial farms, which report an average income of $200,000 and a net worth of nearly $2 million.â€
We pay $25 billion to these rich farmers. And add another $12 billion in higher food prices, which are the last thing we need now, with Congress’s idiotic ethanol subsidies already pushing prices up.
So why would any Democrat support continuing such absurdity?
Because Democrats like siphoning off our money through government and using it to buy friends and stay in power. That’s all they really believe in. Equality? Hah!
Why would Republicans support it?
Same reason.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.