Obama Proposal Calls For $33 Billion Cut To Farm Programs
Eliminates direct payments, reduces conservation spending by $2 billion
President Barack Obama’s plan for deficit reduction would cut $33 billion from farm programs. Obama unveiled the plan a week after releasing the $447 billion jobs bill it is meant to complement.
The agriculture proposals outlined included:
- eliminating the direct payment.
- reducing federal government assistance to crop insurance companies and farmers using crop insurance – reductions that would come on top of $12 billion
- reducing conservation spending by $2 billion over 10 years.
- extending until 2016 the SURE disaster assistance program, which has no money allocated to it after this fiscal year.
The proposal fell at the high end of estimated potential cuts to safety net programs through the debt-reduction process. Previous numbers floated have ranged from $10-11 billion in the President’s debt commission report and the Gang of Six discussions to $30 billion or more in debt talks led by Vice President Joe Biden and the House-passed budget resolution.
