Outrageous Taxpayer Subsidies

Did you know that American taxpayers subsidize cotton farmers?  Did you know that American taxpayers subsidize cotton farmers in Brazil?  The next time one of your liberal friends asks "What programs would you cut from the federal budget?" as if ending any program was tantamount to taking food out of children's mouths, tell them you would cut the $150M a year we are sending to Brazilian cotton farmers.

American farm subsidies began during the Great Depression.  Basically, it was to make sure that farm families did not go bankrupt, and disrupt the US food supply.  But when the war came, and many farming families sold their farms to big corporations and farming conglomerates, the farm subsidies did not die.  During the post-war boom, when the American economy was growing by leaps and bounds, the farm subsidies did not die.  Nor did the subsidies die when the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its member countries voted to limit the subsidies paid by governments to their farmers.

Let me reiterate that last point.  The WTO, of which the United States is a member, entered into a treaty, a multi-national agreement, to curtail most farm subsidies.  Despite the agreement, despite the Full Faith and Credit of the US Government, Congress still voted to give farm subsidies to US farmers.  This made other countries, who were abiding by the treaty, angry.  Brazil cotton farmers were really mad.  The US farm subsidies were making their cotton sell at a disadvantage on the world market.

So they sued.  Brazilian cotton farmers and their Interior Secretary took the US to court, and won.  The international court of the WTO found that America had violated their agreement to limit farm subsidies.  The US appealed, and lost.  We appealed again, and lost again.  Then we did something very American.

We sent a delegation to Brazil to negotiate with the Brazilian cotton farmers.  Our delegates explained how hard it is to kill a program once it is enacted by Congress.  They said it might take years to stop the subsidies altogether.  This was not a good negotiating position.  The Brazilians didn't care about how hard it is for Congress to stop paying farmers.  They just knew we were violating an agreement we had entered into with other cotton-producing countries.

So the US delegation offered to pay Brazilian cotton farmers a fee, a penalty of sorts, to appease them. Since the US Congress will not take up the Farm Bill until 2012, we offered to pay $150M a year to Brazil to help level the playing field until we could take up the issue and make changes.  The agreement was struck in April of this year.  Had you heard about it before now? Neither had I, until I heard a report on National Public Radio today.  And although the NPR report did mention that the US taxpayer was now subsidizing cotton farmers in Brazil, it was not reported with any outrage or urgency.  It was almost noted in passing.

Now, to those of you who might say that $150M is a drop in the bucket when compared with the total US Government annual budget, you are right.  Compared to our trillion dollar debt, this is small time.  But exactly where do you draw the line?

If my family signed up for every convenience advertised on television and radio, and didn't worry about the cost because it was always "just pennies a day", there would come a time when those pennies added up to such a sum that we could no longer pay the mortgage or the light bill.  And that is exactly what our government has done with this settlement agreement with Brazilian cotton farmers.  Instead of making the hard choices to stop subsidizing huge farming conglomerates at home, and abiding by an agreement made with the WTO, we opted instead for a convenient fee paid to a foreign government. 

How many of the other foreign aid line items in our federal budget are there for the very same reason? It is easier to pay a few million a month to keep them at bay than it is to reduce our bigger contributions to big political contributors.  In other words, Big Farm Firms, like Big Pharma, or Big Oil, pay big bucks to re-elect their favorite Congressman every year.  And that Congressman is afraid that if he stands up to his big contributors, then he might lose his job.

My heart bleeds.