Posted on 12/11/2007 5:35:44 PM PST by shrinkermd
Here's today's quiz: What do Scottie Pippen, David Letterman and Ted Turner have in common? Answer: None of them are farmers, but all three have received thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies this decade.
We could add to that list of non-farmer farm-aid recipients David Rockefeller, Leonard Lauder of the cosmetics firm, Edgar Bronfman Sr. of the Seagram fortune, and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Our point is that you don't have to drive a tractor, plant seeds, or even live anywhere near rural America to qualify for Uncle Sam's farm largess. And you sure don't have to be poor.
The Environmental Working Group has a map of New York City making the rounds on the Internet that shows 562 dots, each representing a Manhattan resident who gets a USDA farm payment. Who knew that growing cotton, corn and soybeans was such a thriving industry near Central Park? We don't know the incomes of these people, but it's a fair guess they're not homeless.
What we have here is a real-life version of the 1960s TV show "Green Acres," but in reverse. In the fictional series, Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor play a fancy couple who flee Manhattan to live down on the farm among the pigs and goats, while she pines for the glitter of Times Square. In the 2007 version, they flee the farm for Manhattan and get a subsidy check at their Park Avenue penthouse. What a deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Red Ted is a rancher, and he used to have (and perhaps still does have) a plantation in South Carolina. So there is a little bit of intellectual dishonesty in this story.
Ignorance must be bliss. A few years ago when prices were lower, the usda paid farmers the difference between a target price and the actual price. It had nothing to do with the price that cargill, your local wheat grinder, etc. paid for raw crops mush less the consumer.
Are you talking about what you had for dinner or you don't believe what I posted?
For clarification, USDA isn't providing the money they're providing the mortgage insurance, just as FHA/HUD and VA do. If the borrower goes belly up USDA pays off the loan to the investors.
USDA Rural Development Housing & Community Facilities Programs.
Approved lenders under the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan program include:
* Any State housing agency;
* Lenders approved by:
o HUD for submission of applications for Federal Housing Mortgage Insurance or as an issuer of Ginnie Mae mortgage backed securities;
o the U.S. Veterans Administration as a qualified mortgagee;
o Fannie Mae for participation in family mortgage loans;
o Freddie Mac for participation in family mortgage loans;
* Any FCS (Farm Credit System) institution with direct lending authority;
* Any lender participating in other USDA Rural Development and/or Farm Service Agency guaranteed loan programs.
USDA has maps for each county in each state with the areas outlined where they offer Home Loan Guarantees. I was at a property last month in a subdivision on a 1/3 acre lot in a suburban location that was being purchased using the Rural Housing and Development program. The only thing agriculture related about this property was the grass growing in the yard.
I see you’re taking heat for this, but you are right. The governments Cheap Food Policy has worked very well since at least the 1950’s.
Generally, it puts a floor on prices, insuring that farmers won’t go out of business, and also indirectly establishes a ceiling on prices.
The result is a lot farmers who are always living on the verge of bankruptcy, just one or two crops away from financial disaster.
The second result, which has been the governments primary objective, is massive amounts of foodstuffs at very low prices.
Hats off to the AMerican Farmer for surviving all this meddling.
Haven’t Letterman and Turner complained about taxes not being high enough?
So not a farmer, no intent on being a farmer yet takes handouts anyway. Thanks man, so uncle Sam holds a gun to my head and gets 25 thousand dollars a year from me and this guy gets some part of that. Great dude.
Stop the subsidies and keep my money in my OWN pockets, instead of lining Ted Turner’s pockets even more. Then I could AFFORD a burger. If you like such subsidies, you MUST be a liberal.
Thanks for bringing the truth to another ‘bash the farmer’ thread.
“a reward... or not doing, a certain thing.
It’s not a welfare program.”
Getting paid to not do something sure sounds like welfare.
To paraphrase a genius (Rush) ignorance is the most expensive commodity sold in the United States.
And there’s a manure spreader full of ignorance on nearly every farmer and or ethanol thread.
Must be a whole lot of farming going on in Central Park.
I refer you to post 45 and 51.
It ain't welfare. You plant something else.
In my case, it was pecan trees.
Drop the land out of production, you lose the subsidy.
As should be clear, I'm all for getting the government out of the farming business (which will never happen). But I've got no problem with anybody -- even rich folks -- being paid subsidies that they've earned by conforming to the law/regulations.
It's no different from taking all the tax deductions you're entitled to -- which I'm sure you do, too.
Most of them can't help it ... they just parrot some anti-farmer junk that they heard somewhere else. There are always a plethora of remarks about the evils of ethanol until you start asking detailed questions of the bashers, then they become mute. One actually answered that he didn't have enough information to answer my question, but he did have enough to have an opinion. LOL.
Please use your wizdom to educate us as to why the govt needs to subsidize agriculture.
The Government pays the farmers to keep the cost of food down.
So; paying farmers to not grow food crops keeps the cost of food down?..
I’ll take three bushels of whatever it is that you’re smoking.
“It’s no different from taking all the tax deductions you’re entitled to — which I’m sure you do, too.”
I do indeed take all tax deductions for which I qualify, though if put to a vote I’d favor their abolition in order to get the govt out of social and economic engineering. I’d prefer a flat tax with no deductions than having to do something a politician smiles upon in order to get some of my money back.
You must have missed post 45.
Your post 45 left more questions than answers.
“The result is a lot farmers who are always living on the verge of bankruptcy, just one or two crops away from financial disaster.”
Why is this a good thing?
“Hats off to the AMerican Farmer for surviving all this meddling.”
Why should the government do something which must be survived?
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