Congress Mulls Cutting Food Aid to Poor instead of cutting farm subsidies

[paula777]

Sorry if this has already been posted. I just read it and it made me SICK!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050312/ap_on_go_co/food_farm_programs


Politics - U. S. Congress


Congress Mulls Cutting Food Aid to Poor

Sat Mar 12, 8:53 AM ET Politics - U. S. Congress


By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Cuts in food programs for the poor are getting support in Congress as an alternative to President Bush (news - web sites)'s idea of slicing billions of dollars from the payments that go to large farm operations.



Senior Republicans in both the House and Senate are open to small reductions in farm subsidies, but they adamantly oppose the deep cuts sought by Bush to hold down future federal deficits.


The president wants to lower the maximum subsidies that can be collected each year by any one farm operation from $360,000 to $250,000. He also asked Congress to cut by 5 percent all farm payments, and he wants to close loopholes that enable some growers to annually collect millions of dollars in subsidies.


Instead, Republican committee chairmen are looking to carve savings from nutrition and land conservation programs that are also run by the Agriculture Department. The government is projected to spend $52 billion this year on nutrition programs like food stamps, school lunches and special aid to low-income pregnant women and children. Farm subsidies will total less than half that, $24 billion.


Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said the $36 billion food stamp program is a good place to look for savings.


"There's not the waste, fraud and abuse in food stamps that we used to see. ... That number is down to a little over 6 percent now," he said. "But there is a way, just by utilizing the president's numbers, that we can come up with a significant number there."


Bush is proposing to withdraw food stamps for certain families already receiving other government assistance. The administration estimates that plan would remove more than 300,000 people from the rolls and save $113 million annually.


Chambliss said minimal changes in all three areas of agriculture spending — nutrition, farm supports and conservation — could save what's needed. "I want this to be as painless to every farmer in America as we can make it," he said.


House budget writers this week reduced Agriculture Department spending for 2006 by $5.3 billion. Their counterparts in the Senate cut it by $2.8 billion. Bush's proposals would cut farm spending by $8 billion as calculated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites).


The House and Senate plan to vote on initial versions of the budget next week.

[whistle]

1. Correction..... Corporate farm subsidies

[Patiod]

2. Poor people don't make campaign contributions, ADM does

make sense to me

[leftofthedial]

3. I think they should just offer a simple choice to everyone

who makes less than $250K a year

indentured servitude to any rich person who will have you as a slave,

OR

euthanasia

[paula777]

4. lol, I think I'm going to go with euthanasia

[gizmo1979]

5. There are congress people who got elected

Just for farm subsidies,this was not going to go through no matter what.It was a smoke screen from the start.There plan would just dump more crap on the states who are swimming in red from the Bush agenda.