In a press conference held at the National Press Club yesterday, groups from the right, left, and center came together to oppose S. 3240 the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012. Some of the organizations there included Americans for Prosperity, Citizens Against Government Waste, Environmental Working Group, U.S Public Interest Research Group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, R Street, and Americans for Tax Reform. NTU’s own Pete Sepp spoke about some of the concerns that those with fiscally conservative goals have with the Farm bill.
One common theme was concern over the Shallow Loss Program. This program is designed to insure the profits in the agriculture industry now, while the prices are much higher than average. This would leave the taxpayers responsible for the difference if prices were to return to average. Many of the free market groups also expressed rage over the astounding $969 billion price tag. In light of our more than a $1 trillion deficit and $15 trillion debt, we believe that spending almost another trillion to protect the agriculture sector at the expense of the taxpayers is unacceptable. Other groups such as EWG were there to oppose the bill as well, but for reasons concerning the environment.
The press conference made it clear that the one feeling, held by all, is that this bill is a political move that spends almost a $1 trillion to protect the only industry that has not been negatively affected by the economy in the last few years, with no regard for its consequences. Each of these organizations is committed to defeating it.