David Obey: “In 1979, the last year of the Carter administration, agriculture programs cost the taxpayer less than $4 billion in…”

“In 1979, the last year of the Carter administration, agriculture programs cost the taxpayer less than $4 billion in direct payments to farmers and prices paid to farmers at the marketplace were considerably higher than they are today. This year, under Freedom to Farm, better known in rural America as freedom to fail at farming, which was rammed through this House by the Republican leadership a number of years ago, the cost to taxpayers has risen to well above $20 billion a year, almost 30 if we count all costs, and the prices paid to farmers have fallen through the floor. I think most farmers, at least in my area, recognize that rural America cannot thrive unless family farmers get a decent price for their product and until the so-called Freedom to Farm Act is radically changed, rural America will continue to decay. Both parties need to face up to that fact.”