Reply #5: More about this bill

[Newsjock]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/14/MNIJ10M871.DTL&tsp=1

... The overwhelming House vote quashed hopes by food, conservation and taxpayer groups that the Democratic-led Congress would seize a period of record farm prosperity to shift U.S. food policy from a 1930s model that subsidizes industrial food production to a modernized approach that could aid more farmers and address new public health and environmental goals.

... Democrats also expanded subsidies to new crops and raised subsidy levels, exposing taxpayers to billions more in costs should commodity prices retreat. The payments go to a minority of farmers of a few crops and are highly concentrated among the biggest operations. Nine of 10 farmers in California do not get crop subsidies.

... Every Bay Area Democrat voted for the bill but one: liberal East Bay Rep. Pete Stark.

"It is a rare day indeed that I agree with President Bush," Stark said, "but he is absolutely right to have issued a veto threat of this bill."

The legislation is loaded with special-interest earmarks. California salmon fishermen get a $170 billion bailout added by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa. Kentucky thoroughbred racehorse owners get a $126 million tax write off. The bill will force the federal government to sell parts of the Green Mountain National Forest to a Vermont ski resort.