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The Farm Bill Full of Pork

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  • Description

    FBN’s Gerri Willis on the many parts of the Farm Bill that has nothing to do with farming.

  • Duration 2:38
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I want to -- -- tonight about the farm bill that's moving through congress.

Not -- just tune out when you hear a story like this -- as you say hey I'm not a farmer doesn't matter to me.

Well it's -- -- think again because while the thing is called the farm bill it's a lot more than that.

We're talking about eight trillion dollar piece of legislation and get this about 80% of it has nothing at all do with farming.

Yes that covers farm subsidies and crop insurance which by the way will impact the prices you pay the grocery store.

But it's also about nature conservation school lunches even renewable energy.

But far and away the biggest part of this bill is food stamps.

768.

Billion dollars for what the congress called supplemental nutrition assistance program snap her -- you -- me call food stamps.

But for some worries in the farm bill gets its name from the 140.

Billion in agriculture subsidies.

And here's the thing the bulk of these so called farmer subsidies don't go to farmers and all.

At least not the farmers you and I know.

They get a big companies check this out for every federal dollar spent on farm subsidies nineteen cents goes to small farms.

Nineteen cents to middle income farms and 62 cents to -- biggest commercial farms.

There's some good news in this year's version of the farm bill.

-- supposed to save taxpayers nearly 24 billion dollars over the next decade.

It cuts back on the free money farmland owners get regardless of whether they plant crops.

And focuses instead on insurance.

So farms don't go belly up after one bad harvest.

So how -- congress bring this up because you know they're securing an -- More than 200 amendments have been filed many having nothing at all to do with the bill one of those cutting off aid to Pakistan says the senator who offered it.

Quote it's not germane but that doesn't mean it's not important.

He admits it's nothing to do with farms.

There's an awful lot of money to give away and every lawmaker wants a piece of it for his district.

So this farm bill has become a bipartisan.

Pork barrel.

Bonanza.

And this -- -- everything you need to know about Washington.

Call one thing have -- be about something else on the one hand giving out billions of dollars in food stamps help people in need by food.

All the while pushing policies that keep the price of food high in the first place like quotas on sugar and again the middle class takes a hit.

You don't qualify for food stamps -- your tax dollars are paying for them and you're spending more and more of your paycheck at the grocery store.

This is how congress works it spends our money smoking -- hiding its intent.

It's time to people who pay the bills had their say.

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