Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will be on SDPB's Dakota Midday today (so will State Senator Angie Buhl! Go Angie!). Perhaps Paul Guggenheimer or some eager caller can ask Secretary Vilsack what cuts he would support to federally subsidized crop insurance. Why keep pouring tax dollars into a program that disincentivizes conservation, drains wetlands, digs up native prairie, and transfers wealth from taxpayers to farmers even when crops prices are high?
And then there's the waste of subsidizing all those crop insurance agents:
But it's not just farmers who do well on this system. 16 private insurance companies are approved to play the federally-subsidized crop insurance game. And they're subsidized, too, against any losses they may incur. They also get their administrative and operating costs paid for by the feds. And their agents make a commission based on how pricey of a policy they sell; not on a per policy basis. So if they sell a policy to a farmer at $7/bushel as opposed to $5/bushel, they get more money, even though the policy is the same. The taxpayer pays more money twice, because s/he's subsidizing a higher premium and also a higher commission [Stephanie Paige Ogburn, "Subsidized Crop Insurance: The Next Ag Boondoggle?" High Country News: The Goat Blog, 2011.06.20].
Like Secretary Vilsack, Congresswoman Kristi Noem staunchly defends federally subsidized crop insurance. Next time Paul Guggenheimer gets Rep. Noem on the show, he should ask her just how much money her husband Bryon makes selling crop insurance.
Federal crop insurance is the major reason land prices have escalated, cash rents have have exploded, and beginning farmers can't get into farming. When you take the risk out of farming(socialize the risk), padded the profit(privatized the profit), you can expect further concentration in agriculture and less opportunity for beginnners. Sad to say, but we in agriculture are a greedy lot and most times self serving. By the way, I have been a farmer all my life. Sadly it has come down to greed over need and wants over common good.
I'm concerned that Guggenheimer is adopting a tone of capitulation to the SDGOP and is becoming just another propaganda mouthpiece. His comments during his interview with Abdi Rashid yesterday suggested that while Sioux Falls may be more open to refugees, he ignored a listener's email that reminded him that tribal members are still shunned in most South Dakota communities adjacent to reservations.
Let's give corn insurance but let's let people suffer...
I'm not for Obamacare but at least I would rather insure human beings than CORN!
[CAH: Mike, you might have the kernel of the best 2012 campaign slogan. Jeff Barth, Matt Varilek, are you guys paying attention?]
Guggenheimer is not a conservative by any means. I've visited with him at the SD Film Festival several years and he is not always a flaming liberal but he is not at all a GOP mouth piece.
What in the heck is NOem doing? She is a disgrace.
Your funny Cory. Thanks for all you do!
If we cut the money to farmers maybe we should cut it to the poor oil companies too.