House Bill Cuts U.S. Farm Aid, Payment to Brazil.

[elleng]

Source: NYT

A House committee voted to cut off crop subsidies to growers with more than $250,000 a year in adjusted gross income on Tuesday -- a dramatic tightening of the farm safety net.

The Appropriations Committee also voted to make cotton growers effectively pay for the $147 million a year U.S. payment to Brazil, the victor in a trade dispute over American cotton supports.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/05/31/us/politics/politics-us-usa-agriculture-subsidies.html?hp

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Not being a farmer myself...

What does 250k a year in adjusted gross income look like, average, against costs/taxes?

What is the average farmer's profit in the 251k income bracket look like? 20 thousand? 30 thousand? Do they make as much as a teacher even?

[BR_Parkway]

2. AGI is mostly after deductions for things like IRA contributions, alimony paid

(can't imagine a politician who didn't want that one tossed in there) and credit for self employed contributions to SEPs and Social Security

That initial 250K is going to be reported much higher on line 18, Schedule F Farm Income - which already deducts all those expenses of running the farm, costs of seed, fertilizer, tractors, etc...

So basically, the profit is the 250K figure - this isn't about the small subsistence farmer barely eeking by - this is about folks like Michelle Bachmann getting farm subsidies in spite of all the other income she has (or her typical Tea Party stance of all government checks that don't go to me are wasteful spending)

[elleng]

4. Thought so. Thanks for the clarification.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. Ah, I thought that would be net income before operating expenses.

[pampango]

3. "A House committee voted to cut off crop subsidies to growers with more than $250,000..."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-usa-agriculture-subsidies-idUSTRE7500DD20110601

"The wealthiest Americans are barred under the 2008 farm law from receiving crop subsidies. People with more than $500,000 in adjusted gross income from off-farm sources or $750,000 in on-farm AGI are not eligible for payments.

Flake won support for a $250,000 AGI limit by saying, "That's still pretty good income. Anything above that, we cannot do."

President Barack Obama attracted little immediate support with a Feb 14 proposal to set the eligibility cap at $250,000 AGI for off-farm income and $500,000 on-farm AGI. USDA estimated the limits would affect 30,000 people out of 1.2 million farm subsidy recipients.

A year ago, the United States said it would pay $147 million a year to a technical assistance fund for cotton growers in Brazil as partial resolution of a cotton dispute. Brazil won a World Trade Organization ruling that U.S. subsidies distorted global production. Lawmakers are expected to revise cotton supports in a 2012 overhaul of farm policy."