http://www.forbes.com/…

Here’s a fact that supporters of the Farm Bill might want to consider as the legislation is deliberated on the House floor this week: Between 1999 and 2005, the U.S Department of Agriculture paid $1.1 billion in farm payments to nearly 173,000 people who weren’t alive.

Nothing illegal–just Washington business as usual. Under certain conditions, estates can receive farm payments for up to two years after a recipient’s death. But according to a study released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, 40% of the deceased who received payments from 1999 to 2005 had been dead for at least three years. In one instance, someone who died in 1995 got $400,000.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says that “it’s an enticing headline to read [the report] and say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me–they’re paying money to dead people.’” But the reality, he says, is that the USDA makes its farm payments to farming operations, which are tied to land, and it has no control over who works that land.

If they got rid of these bogus subsidies altogether we’d save money and not have these ‘enticing headline’ possibilities. There are no reasons to be giving these millionaire farmers public money. As for the others who are unable to compete otherwise… too bad. Raise prices or get out of the business. The public shouldn’t have to be supporting their failed businesses.

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