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Farm programs targeted for cuts?

As Congress continues to battle over the budget, a new Democratic proposal to avoid across-the-board spending cuts targets two areas for big cuts; the defense budget and farm programs.  American Farm Bureau farm policy specialist Mary Kay Thatcher says while AFBF favors avoiding sequestration – this is not the way to do it.  “We just don’t think that’s right,” she says.  “We’re willing to give our fair share – but to say only two sectors are going to give all of the money are just unfair.”

Thatcher explains that the plan would cut funding by eliminating direct payments.  But she says that could have happened had the farm bill passed last year.  “Both the bill that passed the House Ag Committee and the Senate eliminated direct payments and did indeed turn part of the money towards deficit reduction and the part of it to build a new program with a new adequate safety net,” she says. 

Parts of the farm bill are designed to protect farmers when times are tough and Thatcher says if too much money is taken out of the budget now – a farm bill can’t be written with an adequate safety net.

Which she adds would be bad news for agriculture.

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