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Republicans Slash Food Aid For Low-Income Women And Children, But Dodge Farm Subsidy Cuts
WASHINGTON -- Republicans have quietly maneuvered to prevent a House spending bill from chipping away at federal farm subsidies, instead forging ahead with much larger cuts to domestic and international food aid.
The GOP move will probably prevent up to $167 million in cuts in direct payments to farmers, including some of the nation's wealthiest. The maneuver, along with the Senate's refusal Tuesday to end a $5 billion annual tax subsidy for ethanol-gasoline blends, illustrates just how difficult it will be for Congress to come up with even a fraction of the trillions in budget savings over the next decade that Republicans have promised.
Meanwhile, the annual bill to pay for food and farm programs next year would cut food aid for low-income mothers and children by $685 million, about 10 percent below this year's budget.
Direct payments to farmers have been a frequent target of fiscal conservatives and other critics of farm programs because they are paid regardless of crop price or yield. They have survived for years, along with tens of billions annually in other subsidies for farmers, because a powerful coalition of farm state lawmakers in both parties has protected them.
Farmers can now make as much as $750,000 annually and still receive subsidies, but one proposed amendment would lower the threshold for some to $250,000, saving about $20 million annually. Another proposed amendment would have dipped into direct payments to pay a $147 million annual payment the United States makes to Brazil as a settlement in a World Trade Organization dispute over cotton subsidies.
House Republicans Cut Food Assistance For Low-Income Families While Protecting Azaleas
WASHINGTON -- If you're an azalea at the National Arboretum, you're in luck -- a Republican on the House Appropriations Committee is looking out for you. If you're a woman, infant or child, however, you're on your own.
Slipped into the FY 2012 agriculture appropriations bill that the House is expected to take up today is an unusual provision on page 13 requiring the National Arboretum to maintain a very specific portion of its azalea collection.
"The Committee directs the National Arboretum to maintain its National Boxwood Collection and the Glenn Dale Hillside portion of the Azalea Collection," reads the bill. "The Committee encourages the National Arboretum to work collaboratively with supporters of the National Arboretum to raise additional funds to ensure the long-term viability of these and other important collections."
While azaleas are being carefully tended to, the bill would cut $832 million from a program that provides food assistance to low-income mothers and children. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the reduction could result in as many as 475,000 people being turned away from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) if food prices continue to rise.
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billonthehill wrote: huffington post??? Since when have given the straight story on anything????
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LadyJazzer wrote: The bills are the bills... They are easy to look up and read... You want to bash HuffPo for pointing out the hypocrisy of the GOP, be my guest... It doesn't alter what's in the legislation, does it....
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LadyJazzer wrote: Dang, you gotta love those "compassionate conservatives"... As long as the mega-farms & Agri-Business get their handouts, who gives a flip about women and children?
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