Depression-Era Farm Subsidies Should Be Terminated

Allan C. Brownfeld

8/14/2012

Government spending, everyone realizes, is out of control. During President George W. Bush’s tenure from 2001 through 2009, the national debt doubled. According to Bruce Riedl of the Heritage Foundation, the prescription drug bill alone is projected to add nearly $400 billion in its first decade.

Both parties are clearly in this together. According to Factcheck, “Spending under President Obama remains at a level that is quite high by historical standards. Measured as a percentage of the nation’s economic production, it reached the highest level since World War II in fiscal 2009….”

Since 2009, the Obama administration has maintained trillion dollar deficits. Writing in Roll Call, Dustin Siggins and David Weinberger report, “If we average spending as a percentage of GDP under Bush from 2001 to 2009, it comes to just over 20 percent…. If we do the same for Obama from 2010 to 2012, we get about 24 percent, quite a bit higher than the historical average.”

One place to cut spending is to eliminate depression-era farm subsidies. But since each farm state has two senators — some Democrats, some Republicans — this has been difficult to do. Now, in our era of economic decline and skyrocketing government debt, it is time to take a serious look at this wasteful program.

And now… the rest of the story. …..