Are the Republicans serious about cutting spending, including farm subsidies? Look at who they elected Chairman of the House Ag Committee and the shenanigans he's already up to.
One of the GOP old guard already is trying to protect the farm bill from the budget axe. Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas, who will become chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, has decided to wait until the current bill expires in 2012 to begin work on the successor legislation, hoping the fiscal environment is more spender-friendly by then. His predecessor, Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, had been planning to start work on the next farm bill in 2011. Postponing debate until 2012 is a "serious negative," says Kind, because it's difficult to pass a farm bill during a presidential election year. That means debate probably won't begin in earnest until 2013. In the meantime, big industrial farmers will have gotten added billions in wasteful subsidies in the form of "continuing budget resolutions" after the five-year, 2008 bill expires. This would include $147.3 million in annual payments to Brazilian cotton farmers, who in 2009 successfully challenged the propriety of U.S. cotton subsidies under World Trade Organization rules...more
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