The Farm Bill widens the inequality gap – features special interest loopholes designed to benefit the rich

In a temporary win for taxpayers, Republicans failed on May 25 to come up with the votes to pass the massive farm bill on that would have set the rules and practices for American agriculture for the next five years. The House bill was full of sweetheart deals, special carveouts for multimillionaires and billionaires, and ushered in no free market reforms.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the farm bill will cost $868 billion over the next 10 years. Instead of reining in out-of-control subsidy programs and closing special interest loopholes, the legislation preserves Depression-era giveaway programs and dismisses opportunities to pass free-market reforms to modernize the nation’s agriculture industry.

{mosads}Most of the amendments offered by fiscal conservatives were denied floor consideration, and the few that were allowed suffered defeat at the hands of the big spenders. For example, a bipartisan amendment that would have reformed the egregious sugar program, which benefits sugar producers by guaranteeing them a minimum price for the commodity, limits imports, and punishes end-users of sugar, like bakers and candy makers, who pay more for their most basic raw material and then pass those costs on to consumers. Taxpayers also foot the bill for excess sugar production.

The one bright spot in the bill was the inclusion of work requirements for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which makes up 80 percent of the overall cost of the farm bill.

Since the entire Democratic caucus washed its hands of the farm bill early in the process in opposition to the relatively modest SNAP work provisions, the 30 Republicans who defied their leadership in giving it thumbs down ensured its defeat by a final vote of 213-198.

However, many of these Republicans were not all disturbed by the cost of the bill; they were using their no votes to pressure House leadership into holding a vote on an immigration bill.

House leadership has indicated that it intends to take up the bill again, since current law expires on September 30, 2018. Given the size and scope of the House version, taxpayers should be looking to the Senate for some assistance in shifting the status quo.