Farm bill continues mistakes, bad policies

Dear Editor,

The 2014 Farm Bill is signed, sealed and delivered to the President by both the Republicans and Democrats; it increases from $640 billion to $960 billion over the next 10 years.

The Democrats, to include our Congresswoman Susan Delbene, are criticizing the cut in SNAP (Food Stamps) of $8 billion but that is only 1.1 percent of SNAP spending. Susan Delbene, loves spending money on SNAP and takes pride in the fact that the program has grown from $20 billion to $80 billion per year in the last decade.

I never hear what we can do to uplift our working poor and getting them out of poverty or how has program requirements changed to bring so many into the program. Currently 20 percent of U.S. households receive food stamps; we should be ashamed that our economy is at this level.

I grew up in a farming area and I realize that for a small family farm it is not easy but subsidizing crops raises our grocery bills and makes it harder for working class people to afford their food costs.

Federal controls on the dairy and sugar industries raise prices and are costly to U.S. consumers.

If farm subsidies were eliminated, it would cause short term modifications but over time the system would re-adjust and farmers would adjust their planting and land use, cut costs and diversify their incomes.

If we want to see food prices go down, we should eliminate the requirement for ethanol in our fuel. We could reduce food prices and also get better gas mileage since we get less efficiency from ethanol.

We burn up four percent of the world’s large grain supply. We burn 40 percent of the U.S. corn production, which raises prices on beef, chicken, etc. and that impacts all of us in the wallet.

Congresswoman Delbene pushes programs of poverty, mediocrity, and the economic programs of a third world nation.

We need representation that pushes people to be more self-reliant and a robust private economy that will lead us all into a bright future.

Todd Welch

Lake Stevens