The Farm Bill Makes The Koch Brothers Richer While Destroying the Clean Water Act

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/02/06/farm-bill-koch-brothers-richer-destroying-clean-water-act.html



The Farm Bill Makes The Koch Brothers Richer While Destroying the Clean Water Act
By: Rmuse more from Rmuse
Thursday, February, 6th, 2014, 3:31 pm

On Tuesday the Senate passed the “bipartisan” bicameral farm bill that languished for two years because Democrats and Republicans were locked in a heated debate on how much food to take away from poor people, and believe it or not there were progressives claiming the farm bill was a “win for us.” However, while some are congratulating Congress for “only” robbing $8.7 billion from the food stamp program, and Washington celebrates finally getting a farm bill passed, corporate agribusiness, the insurance industry, and the Koch brothers are celebrating a poisoned farm bill that adds to the Kochs fortune and decimates part of the Clean Water Act. If any American other than the Kochs, Americans for Prosperity, and corporate agribusiness is celebrating the farm bill, they obviously are unaware of what the bill entails and why it sailed through both houses of Congress with hardly a whimper from conservatives lusting for deeper food stamp cuts.

Both Democrats and Republicans boasted the repeal of $4.5 billion in annual direct cash payments to farmers (subsidies) that Senator Debbie Stabenow said “ends outdated and unnecessary subsidies.” House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) highlighted the savings by repealing the direct payments and said “don’t underestimate the magnitude of the reforms;” reforms that surreptitiously deposited direct payment savings right back to corporate agribusiness by expanding crop insurance subsidies. The farm bill actually doles out the same amount of taxpayer money to farmers, mostly wealthy ones, as the old direct payment program. The new bill’s gift to corporate agriculture is the shift from direct payments to crop insurance that ensures them their free taxpayer money will be distributed in a hidden manner making it difficult to repeal later.

Supporters of the government crop insurance program claim it only pays farmers if they experience losses, but because the federally subsidized crop insurance program already pays nearly two-thirds of farmers’ premiums and insurance claims, it guarantees they will get more revenue whether a crop fails or prices drop below a certain level. The new farm bill expands the program at a cost to taxpayers of $7 billion more than the old bill. Last year farmers received $16 billion in crop insurance payments that were paid by the federal government, not an insurance company, regardless that net agriculture income increased by 15 percent. The biggest beneficiaries of crop insurance payouts are corporate agribusiness because there are no limits to premium support that means the biggest and richest businesses reap the most benefits. A critic of crop insurance, the Environmental Working Group, estimated that 10,000 policy holders receive over $100,000 each in crop insurance subsidies annually, and under the law the names of individual businesses getting support are secret so members of Congress receiving subsidies will not be disclosed to the public.

The public is also likely unaware that private insurance companies administering the program received $1.3 billion for administrative expenses in 2011 despite the fact that the crop insurance program is paid for by the government. Crop insurance is extremely lucrative for companies administering the program who earn, on average, a 30% return and recorded $10 billion in profits over the past decade. It is so profitable for insurance companies that insurers regularly cover high-risks where farmers plant in low-yield areas because they will get rewarded either way. Crop insurance also included “Price Loss Coverage” where farmers receive taxpayer payments if prices for corn, soybeans, or 12 other crops fall below a certain level. The new farm bill raises that floor price in ways that guarantee there will always be payouts for some crops making Price Loss Coverage duplicative as well as forces taxpayers to guarantee revenue for private businesses.


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