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Bipartisan Farm Bill Expected to be Passed in the House

Wrangor

Wrangor

Go Deacs
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...abels-and-food-stamps-whats-in-the-farm-bill/

Was surprised it wasn't already posted on here. For farmers it was exactly as expected. No more direct subsidies in exchange for an insurance program that can mitigate some of the losses in a bad weather year. Food stamps were cut, and state universities can grow cannibus for research. Pretty major cuts to the dollar value of the bill and all facets involved felt some of the pain. Except sheep farmers, it seems their funding was maintained.

Should pass the Senate, and I expect the President as well.
 
Sure. The previous bill was better for farmers, but it was basically a glorified handout, so I think it is better to go this way which is to offer for protection for the production of agricultural goods in the US. I think we as a nation want to have a stable agricultural base, and by providing disaster insurance that is what the bill accomplishes. I am sure there will be farmers that will look to take advantage of it, but for the vast majority of farmers this will work. We have had a lot of really good weather years in the past few in the mid south while the midwest and west have been hammered with tough luck. When bad weather comes for a farmer it often means you lose a significant portion of your farm. Having some stability never hurts and helps the food prices in general. In reality, while the bigger farmers garner headlines for this sort of protection it is the smaller farmer that it helps the most as in a bad year they are more able to swallow the loss. Without protection the smaller farmer would just be swallowed up by the larger during bad years.

I think the bill will work, I think it is fair, and I think there are less opportunities for fraud than in the previous system. In order to defraud the system you are going to have to be pretty obvious about it. There are insurance farmers currently, and there will be more (farmers who specifically grow a bad crop to collect insurance), but eventually those guys are burned, and the rest of the farmers are glad to see it. I think people who are going to cheat like that are going to cheat regardless of the rules. Farmer protection is a small portion of the farm bill, and we got hit for the largest total cut, but again - we knew it was coming. We had some fat, and we expected the trim to make the program more lean. Now if we could just do the same for the rest of the fatty government programs we would be in a lot better shape.
 
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If there aren't massive systemic changes that save money, Dems should be ashamed of themselves for getting rolled about Food Stamps. It's immoral to cut the levels of benefits. If they can't find actual waste and savings, you are talking about taking $15/month out of the mouths of poor children who are barely subsisting as it is.
 
RJKarl said:
If they can't find actual waste and savings, you are talking about taking $15/month out of the mouths of poor children who are barely subsisting as it is.
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Maybe they should eat food instead of dollar bills!!!
 
SNAP Participation:

Year - Avg participation in millions / Avg $ per participant / Total Cost in billions

1994 - 27.474 / 69.00 / 22.74858
1995 - 26.619 / 71.27 / 22.76407
1996 - 25.543 / 73.21 / 22.44011
1997 - 22.858 / 71.27 / 19.54886
1998 - 19.791 / 71.12 / 16.89049
1999 - 18.183 / 72.27 / 15.76940
2000 - 17.194 / 72.62 / 14.98332
2001 - 17.318 / 74.81 / 15.54739
2002 - 19.096 / 79.67 / 18.25620
2003 - 21.250 / 83.94 / 21.40428
2004 - 23.811 / 86.16 / 24.61889
2005 - 25.628 / 92.89 / 28.56788
2006 - 26.549 / 94.75 / 30.18735
2007 - 26.316 / 96.18 / 30.37327
2008 - 28.223 / 102.19 / 34.60840
2009 - 33.490 / 125.31 / 50.35992
2010 - 40.302 / 133.79 / 64.70216
2011 - 44.709 / 133.85 / 71.81092
2012 - 46.609 / 133.41 / 74.61934
2013 - 47.636 / 133.07 / 76.06724

Full database.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/snapsummary.htm

Obama and Bush. Expanding food stamps together. Bush reversed Clinton's hard work, and Obama has escalated it.
 
People on food stamps don't talk about it like it's some great thing. I don't know why conservatives insist to perpetuating that narrative.
 
Using 2013 numbers, if there are no systemic savings the average FS recipient will go from $133/month to about $118/month.

This is immoral.

Of course, God forbid we think about raising taxes on the richest or expand SS maxes.
 
I don't think anyone on this thread has said its a great thing. Doesn't mean it is currently being used properly. Our political system is set up to placate the poor not help them.
 
Sigh, yet another debate on the incentive qualities of "handouts." That's not why we have food stamps.
 
Wrangor said:
I don't think anyone on this thread has said its a great thing. Doesn't mean it is currently being used properly. Our political system is set up to placate the poor not help them.
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So let's take food out of the mouth's of poor children because you think this program is about "placating" their parents. Tell that child who will miss at least one meal each week that it's teaching their parents a lesson.

It's inconceivable to me (and had been to members of both parties until hate Obama came in) that taking food out of the mouths of poor children is so easy to do for so many people who run as "Christians".
 
RJKarl said:
So let's take food out of the mouth's of poor children because you think this program is about "placating" their parents. Tell that child who will miss at least one meal each week that it's teaching their parents a lesson.

It's inconceivable to me (and had been to members of both parties until hate Obama came in) that taking food out of the mouths of poor children is so easy to do for so many people who run as "Christians".
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It's obviously 100% that simple. All Christians should support all gov't programs for the poor all of the time...end of story.

So, quick question, do you support taxing religious organizations? You could easily argue that taxing religious charities would take food out of the mouths of poor children as well. The truth is that the issue is far more complicated than your partisan mind wants to admit.
 
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Do the numbers for SNAP include the cost of free or reduced lunches at school?

If they do, is that part of the avg benefit per person?
 
That damn Bill Clinton - taking food out of the mouths of children!!!

The year 2000 amount of $72.62 would be $98.24 in 2014, pegged for inflation.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
Do the numbers for SNAP include the cost of free or reduced lunches at school?

If they do, is that part of the avg benefit per person?
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I don't think so, but don't quote me on it. There seems to be a significant group bothered by these cuts. More and more farmers markets were accepting snap and there are studies showing that it was improving overall health of the poor. This comes as many communities are trying to enact prescription food programs.

Other farmers are not so bothered by the snap cuts because they haven't gotten the approval to accept snap.
 
WakeGal said:
I don't think so, but don't quote me on it. There seems to be a significant group bothered by these cuts. More and more farmers markets were accepting snap and there are studies showing that it was improving overall health of the poor. This comes as many communities are trying to enact prescription food programs.

Other farmers are not so bothered by the snap cuts because they haven't gotten the approval to accept snap.
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Would be great if we could ease the difficulty for farmer's markets getting snap approval. A free way to increase the quality of life and health of those who need the help.
 
I just got two circulars from farmers' markets here in OC. I grant you they have buildings, but each shows that they take Amex, Visa/MC and EBT (food stamps)as payments.

My guess is farmers in a lot of states could take food stamps if they take other credit cards.
 
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