With the quinquennial Farm Bill reauthorization, free marketers have a prime opportunity to reform some of the problems in the legislation that they have long been working on. Decades of waste, fraud and abuse in the farm bill could come to an end as Republicans control the presidency and both houses of Congress.
Unfortunately, Republicans still need to deliver - and it’s looking like an uphill battle for now. The preliminary work that has been done in Congress has made meaningful reforms on some parts of the Farm Bill but will leave market-distorting subsidies and corporate welfare intact.
The National Taxpayers Union has been leading the fight on Farm Bill reform for years. Here’s what NTU and other free-market groups are saying about this year’s Farm Bill process:
"The House Farm Bill could be creating a new entitlement for states… Already, more than sixty percent of federal spending is on autopilot - and growing! Legislators should think twice before creating a new opportunity to exacerbate our entitlement spending crisis." - Nan Swift, National Taxpayers Union
“Congress has taken no steps to resolve the wasteful, anti-free market subsidies. In the case of commodities subsidies, it may have actually gotten worse… they should work to pass a free market Farm Bill that does not prop up large farms who cannot compete without government support.” - Daniel Savickas, FreedomWorks
“This next farm bill can’t be business as usual. Conservatives need to start applying their principles to farm subsidies and stop giving a pass to what is arguably one of the worst examples of cronyism.” - Daren Bakst, Heritage Foundation
“Farm subsidies are unfair to the taxpayers who pay the bills, but they also harm the broader economy. By interfering with market mechanisms, subsidies can induce overproduction, distort crop choice, undermine cost control, and inflate land prices … Republicans must decide whether to pass another bloated farm bill or stand up to the farm lobbies and extract needed cuts.” - Chris Edwards, Cato Institute
“The bill’s $867 billion price tag does little more than buy a slight rearrangement for the special interests that already have a deck seat on this subsidy steam liner. Lawmakers should scuttle this bill, go back to the drawing board.” - Taxpayers for Common Sense
“The R Street Institute is deeply disappointed by the first draft of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, unveiled this week by the House Committee on Agriculture. The draft farm bill represents a missed opportunity to enact pragmatic, commonsense reforms to our badly outdated farm programs.” - R Street Institute