WHO GETS THE FARM BILL’S BENEFITS?
The Farm Bill battle has been a partisan slog. Democratic senators and House members with large urban populations are fighting to defend SNAP against Republican efforts to sharply cut spending. Meanwhile, the parties are also trying to reach a deal to restructure farm subsidies. Amid this complex fight, the reality of who benefits is also complicated: neither farm subsidies nor food stamps follow the electoral map. It’s not just Republican areas that benefit from farm subsidies or just big Democratic states that benefit from food stamps — the money for both items is spread pretty widely across the spectrum. Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota are among the top five states receiving farm subsidies. They voted twice for President Obama; 4 of their 6 senators are Democrats as are a majority of their House members. The numbers for SNAP show an even more complicated picture. The states with the greatest percentage of people using SNAP actually tend to vote Republican in presidential races — and they are mostly not the big urban states most imagine.
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