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Campaign Diary by William Coit
Monday, May 06, 2002On Friday, May 3, 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the new farm bill, 280-141. If I were a member of Congress today, I would have voted against it.
This bill would boost federal subsidies to farmers by $31 billion. This represents a 76 percent increase in agriculture spending.
William Coit said that this bill is laden with corporate subsidies and is a throwback to Soviet-style communism. The federal government is handicapping the American farmer by providing them with welfare payments to overproduce crops. This overproduction drives down prices for crops thus exacerbating the problem of farmers.
This bill would not help out the small farmers in Georgia. The disproportionate number of farmers in Georgia maintain family farms that would not qualify for the payments. It unfairly discriminates against them in favor of large multi-national corporations.
William Coit said that as a nation we need to rethink our agricultural policies and look for ways to increase our competitiveness internationally. We can do better. If we can ask low-income Americans to become less reliant on the federal government, we should insist that large corporations practice the same restraint.
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