WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Mark Sanford released the following statement regarding his vote against the Farm Bill conference report:
“Today I voted against the Farm Bill conference report that came before the House because I’m concerned that it doesn’t go far enough in making changes that are necessary to protect taxpayers,” Sanford said. “Over the last few months of dealing with this bill, I’ve voiced my opposition to the new crop insurance program, the changes that need to be made to SNAP, the overall price tag, and other issues that taxpayers will be on the hook for. Unfortunately, the report agreed to by House and Senate negotiators didn’t resolve my concerns, and I’d offer three quick points to that effect.”
“First, the final price tag on this bill over the next ten years is $956 billion, and given what happened with the last farm bill, I think that number’s likely to go higher,” Sanford said. “This version already costs over 60% more than the 2008 bill, and programs in that version ended up costing more than what Congress originally authorized. I think it’s likely we’ll see something similar happen here.”
“Second, it doesn’t go far enough in making changes to the SNAP program. To start with, we were promised that SNAP would finally be separated from the unrelated topic of agriculture programs. The House even passed separate SNAP reform legislation, but here we find both topics once again recombined. Beyond that, this report only keeps about 20% of the savings from that SNAP reform bill,” Sanford continued. “Instead of $40 billion in substantial savings, we’ll only see about $8 billion as a result of this agreement.”
“Finally, while I’m encouraged that the direct payments program has ended, I’m concerned that the crop insurance program replacing it could end up costing even more,” Sanford added. “The program is set up so that if commodity prices drop, which they’re likely to do from their current historic highs, taxpayers could be on the hook for untold billions. Ultimately I think the cost of this bill is too high even without the risk to taxpayers that will come from a return to average historical commodity prices.”
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(Editor’s Note: The above communication does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of FITSNews.com. To submit your letter, news release, email blast, media advisory or issues statement for publication, click here).
38 comments
Fucking farmers. What have they done for us lately?
…oh, wait – is this for agribusiness, or small farms?
BigAG
Doesn’t matter…they are all making bank from ethanol subsidies and tax credits..even after RFS expired.
…matters to *me*! If my tax dollars are going to help Lassie pull Timmy out of the mine, that’s one thing – but if they’re going to help Jamie Dimon get yet another tandem blow job from a specialty escort service providing one-armed Japanese Lesbian Hookers – not so much.
Jamie Dimon get yet another tandem blow job from a specialty escort service providing one-armed Japanese Lesbian Hookers”
I thought he could get all of those he needed from Jim DeMint.
Yeah… but he doesn’t pay for that with tax payer funds. It’s free.
“one-armed Japanese Lesbian Hookers”
—one-legged Japanese hooker named… IRENE
So you *do* know that cute little Asian number at NSA after all!
If I can only find my diary. She was so fascinating and imaginative I actually wrote all the details…..
Just because you guys made me laugh, here’s one—
_______________________________________
Then there was the nymphomaniac who got herself arrested so she could be tried by the jury.
Her lawyer was doing his best with the jury, as he was telling the twelve men who sat in judgment about her amorous personality, and explained in detail how often and in which ways she performed her sexual exploits, “Shall we find this lovely, long-legged blonde guilty and keep her from returning to her expensive condo, telephone number 555-3267?”
The jury came in with a verdict. She was to have an ‘A’ tattooed on her in a discreet spot.
The judge was curious, “Why an ‘A’?
The jury foreman said, “Because that’s the highest grade we give!”
Irene.
Didn’t she waitress at the IHOP?
TBG used to *see* one of her coworker
s. ‘Murrican gal, also wirh one leg.
Aileen.
we bad..!! apparantly this is not going to be much of a serious week — you guys are on it…
The Waffle House.
Yeah. To hell with those farmers. They only feed you three times a day, provide you with cloths and shoes, (cotton and leather for you city dudes) . Not to mention taking risks each and every year that would make most of you pee in your pants. We really don’t need farmers we get our food at the grocery store. Now I see why we have so many Dim ocrats. I have been involved with agriculture one way or another for over fifty years and wouldn’t have it any other way. Farmers, like every one else, would be better of if the govt. stayed out of our lives and businesses. We are regulated out of our private property by county codes, and EPA. Regulated as to how we run our businesses by DHEC. We jump through hoops to satisfy every soulless bureaucrat in the alphabet soup of govt. and people still complain about the pittance we get from Uncle Sap. We would gladly give up the govt. money for our freedom. But then who would be there to complain.
hoooold on thar, pardner… are you agribusiness or hayseed?
It’s a fer piece from hard workin’ overall wearin’ moonshine makin’ farmer with a fambily to a big city feller rippin’ all us country folk new assholes with all their “middle man” talk, and citified ways!
“every soulless bureaucrat in the alphabet soup of govt”
Rogue – may I quote this..??
Be my guest. I have dealt with many so described.
Damn “Luv gov”, ya dun gone a voted against the farm lobby!
What wuz ya thankin boy?
He was thinking that he didn’t get anything out of it.
In connection with his efforts to cut SNAP payments, Sanford said.
“We just can’t have people sitting on their ass in their homes collecting $4000 a year to help provide food for their family. We need that money to pay me $200,000 a year to sit on my ass here in Washington. There is only so much money to go around, and we have to set priorities.”
Pathetic taker. Can anyone guess how much money the taxpayers have paid to Sanford in salary and benefits over lets say the past 20 years.
He didn’t seem to worry about TPM when he was spending it to visit his mistress, etc, etc, etc… Bless his heart.
So glad he’s in the legislature so his stiupid votes have no real impact on anything and he can vote for his campaign record, while everyone else votes to run the country…
Did he announce every cast vote in a press release when he was in Congress in the past? It does sound like he is trying to maintain his street creds, keep his name out there for a purpose. This is all via FITSNEWS cheap publicity that gets on the www. Then I guess he hopes it gets picked up by other sources. I just don’t trust him to be genuine.
The wedding gift I bought for Sanford and Moonglo is growing mold.
I think they decided that marriage was too bourgeois. Perhaps they are following in the footsteps of France’s Hollande and his tangled but oh so sophisticated and cosmopolitan relationships: the new younger actress fling, his old discarded former other woman fling until recently, known as France’s First Lady, and his even older discarded Baby Momma -original main squeeze.
Belenie and Mark need to be married, for what?
Or maybe as Carrie stated, they are waiting for end of Argentine summer!
Or maybe Belenie started reading ChumpLady.com and realized all is not as it seems.
Could be they married already. After all the brouhaha, maybe they decided to go low-key. She wears a chunky gold thing on her right hand from time to time.
The Food Stamp/SNAP program started out as, and always has been a farm subsidy programs. It has expanded into a food industry program. From the SNAP History page below, it appears that the difference between now and then is that Food Stamps were originally purchased. The people who used them were Food Stamp “purchasers” and not Food Stamp “recipients.”
In the original program described below, the government subsidy (blue Food Stamps) could only be used to buy food that the govt. allow. Food choice limits have been tried in recent years with limited success.
A Short History of SNAP
http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap
The First Food Stamp Program (FSP) – May 16, 1939-Spring 1943
The idea for the first FSP is credited to various people, most notably
Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program’s first Administrator
Milo Perkins. The program operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange
stamps equal to their normal food expenditures; for every $1 worth of orange
stamps purchased, 50 cents worth of blue stamps were received. Orange stamps
could be used to buy any food; blue stamps could only be used to buy food
determined by the Department to be surplus.
Over the course of nearly 4 years, the first FSP reached approximately 20
million people at one time or another in nearly half of the counties in the
U.S.–peak participation was 4 million–at a total cost of $262 million. The
first recipient was Mabel McFiggin of Rochester, New York; the first retailer
to redeem the stamps was Joseph Mutolo; and the first retailer caught violating
the program was Nick Salzano in October 1939. The program ended “since the
conditions that brought the program into being–unmarketable food surpluses and
widespread unemployment–no longer existed.”
“We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and
under-nourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other. We set out to
find a practical way to build a bridge across that chasm.” ( Milo Perkins )
LBJ put food stamps under USDA to hide the money he was stealing from the taxpayers to feed the lazy…. uhhhh entitled.
SNAP is the ultimate subsidy for corporate farming, guaranteeing a market for their products.
How can people not know that?
Oh, shucks, it’s that stupid ass Mark Sanford.
Look at the picture of the people Sanfraud is with, that pretty much sums up why he was put back in office and Haley replaced him. Old idiots who believe anything and everything they are told.
Is this guy ever FOR anything? What a loser–and farmers, for goodness sake?
This is ONE case when he was against something that is misguided and corrupt. He got this right, albeit for the wrong reasons.
Funny how people on this message board bitch and gripe all
day long how bad the government is, raising taxes, increased spending, mauling
taxpayers and here is a representative trying to cut back spending and save tax
money and everyone runs him down. The whole farm bill/subsidy thing is not about
farmers, it’s about “rent seeking” for agribusiness. Farmers get crumbs while
agribusiness gets big checks. Mr. Sanford (his other faults aside) is FOR
taxpayers on this one and those that passed this farm bill are the ones that
deserve derision.
Look up farm subsidies by county and you might be surprised at some of the “farmers” that receive these monies. There are some interesting names, for sure.
I’ve heard of farmers that collect the subsidies, insure their crops, file a claim and collect, then later in the year, go back in the fields and gather the crops. Sounds like triple dipping to me. Farmers can be the biggest whiners in the world. They play the “we get screwed over” card all the time. I have no sympathy for them!
This just proves that if you live long enough you’ll see many unusual things happen. For example, that paragon of GOP “values,” Mark Sanford, finally did something with which I agree, but not for the same reasons as Mark. This ridiculous farm bill cut SNAP for the hungry, but kept intact the sugar subsidies for the multimillionaire Fanjul brothers in Florida who own Domino, C&H Sugar and Florida Crystals. As a result, American consumers will continue to pay 70-90% above world market price for sugar. Ain’t America a great country — for Fat Cats? This doesn’t even touch the subject of the Red States’ (you know, those places where they hate federal spending and are dedicated to “fiscal responsibility”) overwhelming backing for dairy price supports. Gotta love you some “Free Market,” just as long as you still get yours from the gub’ment!
Sanford says NO to the Farm Bill because ” because I’m concerned that it doesn’t go far enough” and YES to Maria because she goes too far!!!
Shame on EVERY Republican who voted for this narcissistic poster-child. We sold our soul when we put him back in Congress- we deserve what we got: a man of appitites NO ONE is proud of!