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USDA Gives Millions to Farmers Who Aren’t Actually Farming
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has doled out millions of dollars in subsidies to farms on which farming isn’t actually taking place, according a new report from government watchdogs. Billions more...
View ArticleFood Stamps: Getting Help from Mexico to Increase Government Dependency
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) just pulled the plug on its controversial outreach program to promote food stamps with “telenovelas” (soap operas), but that’s not the end of its courting of...
View ArticleMore Obama Donors Benefit From USDA’s Latest Loan Guarantee
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a large loan guarantee to a biofuel company whose investors donated handsome sums to the Obama campaign. Some of them have even visited the White House to...
View ArticleAgriculture Department Paid $2 Million for a Single Intern
A report from the Agriculture Department’s Inspector General has revealed some stunning examples of financial waste in the Department’s nascent technology security efforts, which have mismanaged about...
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Rural Utilities Create Zero Jobs With $47 Million in Stimulus Funding
A stimulus program designed to create jobs by funding rural utility projects has created only about 12% of the jobs projected at the outset of the program in a sample of towns recently examined by the...
View ArticleUSDA Says Don’t Eat Meat, and Then Buys Meat
When does the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) say you should eat meat? It depends on the day. On July 23, the agency’s interoffice newsletter, Greening Headquarters Update, encouraged employees...
View ArticleUSDA Requires Little Documentation for $50,000 Discrimination Payouts
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will pay up to $50,000 each to female and Hispanic farmers and ranchers who claimed they were discouraged from applying for USDA loans due to perceived...
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Tales of the Red Tape #36: USDA Lays a Regulatory Egg
The Obama Administration fervently opposes state laws requiring voter identification to cast a ballot. But it is insisting that the nation’s farmers prove the identity of every chicken transported...
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USDA’s Stimulus Jobs Data Plagued by Inaccuracies
Federal requirements for monitoring jobs data associated with President Obama’s stimulus package are insufficient to ensure that that the information is accurate, according to a review of that data...
View ArticleGAO Cites Waste in U.S. Food Aid Programs—But Does Not Call for Budget Cuts
Senator Tom Coburn (R–OK) and others in Congress have repeatedly expressed concerns about “fragmentation, overlap, and duplication” in non-emergency food aid programs administered by the United States...
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The Facts about Food Stamps Everyone Should Hear
Newscom A recent US News & World Report article set out to unveil the “facts” about food stamps. What are the so-called “facts”? For one, the article claims that the food stamps program is not...
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Morning Bell: Who Really Gets Farm Bill Money (INFOGRAPHIC)
Whenever Congress throws too much into one bill, special interests profit. The massive farm bill—which is already 80 percent food stamps—is no exception. So what about the rest of the bill—the...
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Farm Bill Rock ‘n’ Roll
imago stock&people/Newscom What you are about to read is not satire or parody. The farm bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives authorizes a new tax on rocks. Seriously. The House...
View ArticleSpeaker Boehner: What’s “Free Market” About the Farm Bill?
The latest House action on the $1 trillion farm bill comes straight from the playbook “Do as I Say, Not as I Do.” House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) says: “I am a proud advocate for free markets and...
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Tales of the Red Tape #40: The USDA Rabbit Police
Photo courtesy of Marty Hahne There’s no good way to deliver this disturbing bit of news except to come right out with it: Marty the Magician and others in the business of pulling a rabbit from a hat...
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7 Ugly Truths About the House Farm Bill
The recently defeated House farm bill was fundamentally flawed. The House can now fix these flaws by going back to the drawing board and developing real reforms. To adopt necessary reforms, the House...
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101 Million Americans Received Food Aid Last Year
Newscom Nearly one-third of Americans received government-funded food aid in 2012, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). As Heritage Foundation expert Robert Rector...
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Bunny Disaster Plans: Unveiling the Magic Behind Regulations
Photo courtesy of Marty Hahne Cartoon star Bullwinkle the Moose had a running gag in which he tried to pull a rabbit out of a hat and ended up facing a tiger, rhino, lion, or a bear. It’s a good thing...
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Animated Squirrels, Prunes, and Doggie Hair Gel: Your Tax Dollars at Work
Ingram Publishing/Newscom The federal government has spent more than $3 billion over the past 35 years to help multinational agriculture businesses with their overseas marketing. Taxpayers pay about...
View Article6,300 Reasons the Government Is Dead Wrong on Farm Subsidies
Congress has been wrangling for months over how to trim the taxpayer burden of bountiful subsidies to farmers. Here’s a thought: Stop paying the dead ones. Between 2008 and 2012, we now know, the U.S....
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