Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Steiglitz asserts that “American food policy has long been rife with head-scratching illogic. We spend billions every year on farm subsidies, many of which help wealthy commercial operations to plant more crops than we need…. Meanwhile, millions of Americans live tenuously close to hunger, which is barely kept at bay by a food stamp program that gives most beneficiaries just a little more than $4 a day. So it’s almost too absurd to believe that House Republicans are asking for a farm bill that would make all of these problems worse.” The House Republicans’ proposal to cut $40 billion over 10 years, he contends, “would cut back the meager aid to our country’s most vulnerable and use the proceeds to continue fattening up a small number of wealthy American farmers.” This “nonsensical arrangement” takes real money, money that is necessary for bare survival, from the poorest Americans, and gives it to a small group of the undeserving rich, in return for their campaign contributions and political support. There is no economic justification.
Source: New York Times, 11/16/13, Nonsensical Arrangement
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