Bloomberg writes that, ”The cost run-up was predictable – and unsurprising to anyone familiar with the history of bloated farm bills. The 2002 version of the bill, for example, was supposed to cost $451 billion over 10 years, but ultimately came in at $588 billion. The 2008 bill was even worse, chewing up $913 billion when it was supposed to cost $641 million.”
Bloomberg View published in The Olympian:
When does a $23 billion spending cut result in no savings at all? When it’s part of the U.S. farm bill.
Just a few weeks ago, the newest bill – a grab bag of subsidies for farmers and federal nutrition programs – went into effect. It was meant to save money by swapping $5 billion in annual direct payments to farmers with a new kind of crop insurance. But this insurance subsidy is turning out to be even more bloated and wasteful than the old cash giveaways.
The new crop-insurance program, known as price-loss coverage, pays farmers when they suffer so-called shallow losses. So when prices fall somewhat, as they have this summer, farmers come in for a payout. That wouldn’t necessarily cost taxpayers so much, except that Congress, under pressure from Big Ag, pegged the price floors that trigger payouts to the record-breaking commodities prices of recent years.