11.09.2013

Picky, picky

Missing the Bad Old Days - NYTimes.com

By far the biggest argument between the House and Senate on the farm bill is about the food stamp program, which the House Republicans want to slash by $39 billion, mainly through new screening programs to guarantee that every single recipient is working, drug-free, needy and in general totally and completely worthy of government assistance. Even if that means inadvertently emptying a lot of deserving cupboards along the way.

This would be in the same bill that includes crop insurance subsidies that make no attempt whatsoever to screen out the undeserving rich. “Some of them are guys who farm in four or five states, in 20 different counties, growing five or six different crops. These are some of the most successful businesses in the country,” said Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, which recently released a report on the number of billionaires who received farm subsidies since 1995 (about 50).

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