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Farmers Union warns tax cuts will impact farm program funding

As Congressional Republicans push to finalize a massive package of corporate and individual tax cuts, two Farmers Union leaders are warning of possible dire consequences for future farm program funding.

National Farmers Union (NFU) president Roger Johnson says his group strongly opposes the tax reform legislation because it would increase the federal deficit by 1.5 trillion dollars and jeopardize funding for farm safety net programs.

“We all know the day is coming after this bill passes, that when we start debating the farm bill, folks are going to start screaming about, ‘Oh, wait a minute here—we don’t have enough money to spend on these programs’.”

Nebraska Farmers Union president John Hansen agrees.

“There’s only so much money,” Hansen says. “Everybody is going to tighten their belt and that includes ag and the farm bill.”

Johnson says Farmers Union also believes it’s wrong to shift the nation’s tax burden from wealthy corporations and individuals to the rest of Americans.

“The general conclusion is, the more money you make, the more benefit you get from this tax bill,” he says, “and that’s not the way our members think that tax policy ought to be handled in this country.”

Hansen says the theory of trickle-down economics doesn’t work.

“This is sort of doing on a national level what Kansas already tried—and obviously was a painful and tragic mistake,” Hansen says.

The House-Senate conference committee charged with writing a final tax reform bill will hold its first formal meeting on Wednesday. Republicans says they want to have a bill on the President’s desk by Christmas.

AUDIO: Roger Johnson

 

AUDIO: John Hansen

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