Members of Congress are tired of allowing us to know just how much they receive in farm subsidies

[kpete]

Lawmakers won’t have to disclose the farm subsidies they receive:

A provision requiring members of Congress and the administration to disclose what crop insurance subsidies they receive was quietly dropped from the farm bill that the House passed on Wednesday.

Section 11001 of the House-passed farm bill had a provision that “requires disclosure (by name) of the amount of crop insurance assistance received by Members of Congress, Cabinet Secretaries, and members of their immediate families.”

That provision was taken out in closed-door conference negotiations before the bill was released on Monday. The bill cleared the House in less than 72 hours, before many lawmakers had a chance to review it, and now heads to the Senate.


http://crooksandliars.com/2014/01/provision-requiring-lawmakers-disclose

[elleng]

1. Its just SOOOO tiresome!

[octoberlib]

2. So Much for transparency. This is bullshit.

They just don't want people to see how corrupt they are.

[closeupready]

6. +1. That really is all there is to this. Period.

[davekriss]

17. We live in a banana republic now

[Egnever]

24. Wait you thought the republican controlled house promised transparency?

They have done everything in their power to stop it, Don't know why you thought otherwise.

[okaawhatever]

3. If these d bags don't grow up we're going to need to pass a 24 or 48 hour preview rule where

legislators have 24 or 48 hours to read the final bill before it becomes law. this kind of crap happens all the time. If you're wondering why this might have become an issue, it may be Fincher from Tennessee. He's the one who quoted the Bible (out of context) as an excuse for cutting food stamps while he's received over a million in subsidies for not growing anything.

[kelliekat44]

4. The Senate could put it back. nt

[JDPriestly]

10. Let's hope they do.

[Scuba]

16. Yeah, that'll happen.

[Mnemosyne]

5. K&R for more visibility. nt

[Lifelong Protester]

7. It is total BS that they can get away

with this while even hinting that they might have to cut SS or Medicare.

[SoapBox]

8. Filthy dirty fuckers.

[DeSwiss]

9. Can't. Be. Fixed.

[silvershadow]

11. Transparency and accountability are such foreign concepts to them. nt

[ReRe]

12. It's a test...

... if the Senate passes it and it goes to PO to sign and he signs it, that means they will do it again and again, and again, and soon enough, we will NOT be able to see how corrupt they are. We'll become a closed government. Voila'! Ahem... it's getting dark in here.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

13. Yep...

... my sentiments, exactly, upon reading the OP. Just about everything in the U.S. of A. law is based on precedent, and it is easy to foresee how this could be played into no information available on elected (for the time being) officials once they take office. If you think politicians blow sunshine up your keister now, just wait...

[Wilms]

14. ^

[Berlum]

15. Republicon Occultism. As usual. They hide the truth.

Republicons block light.

freaQuently & systematically.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

37. +1

[Hotler]

18. I have no hope. I see no future. n/t

[Skidmore]

19. Why the heck aren't we seeing this as one of those moments where we step up

and start shouting loudly for them to revisit and remove it? Just because it is in one bill doesn't mean that it can't be amevnded with a provision that removes this little nugget. What? We just sit back and don't put pressure on this body? This would be an excellent way to educate the public and demand accountability.

[Swede Atlanta]

20. This is the kind of crap we must fight against.........

There is only one reason this was removed ......the "takers" were tired of being questioned on cutting food stamps while they sucked at the public teat.

[Solly Mack]

21. K&R

[Historic NY]

22. Wouldn't it be nice if the taxpayer could filibuster Congress...

[LuckyLib]

23. Federal farm subsidy amounts should be public knowledge without regard to who you are.

You should be able to look up the amount each farmer in your community "gets" from the public trough -- whether he/she is a farmer, businessperson, or politician. My uncle, who lived in eastern Iowa, used to tell me about the amazing amounts of money his fellow townfolk received from farm subsidies, joking about how during the winter the task of the day was ambling down to the mailbox to collect the monthly check.

For congress to cut assistance to the poorest of our people is just sick! Anything we can do to shine a light on their hypocrisy would be a good thing.

[sorefeet]

25. You can look it up

I have looked my neighbors up. They are all farmers. If they give their kid 160 acres they get subsidies also. One family has 6 members that get it. Crying the blues this year because their sugar beet checks were late because of the government shut down. They are all rich anyway, but they wanted their fucking money. The politicians just don't want us to know the handouts they receive, from the tax payer.

[bluestate10]

33. Do all 6 of that family vote republican? Those types consider themselves to be the salt of

the earth and someone that the rest of us can't live without, even as they grow fucking nothing. For better or worst, food has become global, one only has to look in one's neighborhood grocery to see that virtually all of our fresh food come from Mexico, Peru, Canada, Holland or Israel. I am willing to bet that no farmer in any of those countries, except maybe Israel get paid not to grow produce.

[efhmc]

29. You can easily look this information up. I get a CRP payment

for our ranch. I put in the ranch name and county and there our payments were in about 10 seconds.

[kentuck]

26. Damn!

This is so disheartening.

[66 dmhlt]

27. Here are some Repubican Welfare Kings & Queens ...

Rep. Miller (D) released a list last summer of FOURTEEN Repubicans who received $7.2 MILLION in farm subsidies:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/republicans-who-got-farm-subsidies-targeted-94532.html#ixzz2ZmOa0vn3

One of the biggest Welfare Queens is none other than Michele Bachmann - and not always on the up-and-up:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bachmann-20110626,0,1896024.story#axzz2s5Blx2Gw
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/29/257050/bachmann-fact-check-on-earmarks/
http://www.rippleinstillwater.com/2011/01/michele-bachmanns-family-farm-operating.html
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/16/297282/bachmann-farm-income/

And a resource to view all farm subsidies by state/county/crop. Unfortunately, most subsidies go to corporate farms, so unless you know the corporate name of the person you're interested in, you'll have to hunt by county
http://farm.ewg.org/

[efhmc]

28. This is public information, readily available on the internet.

It may be hidden under a company name but it is not hard to find. One cannot hide the fact that he/she receives government money.

[bluestate10]

34. Once a company is found, it is possible to find out where it was incorporated and who the

officers are.

[efhmc]

36. As I wrote in a previous post, I put in the name of our ranch

and county it's located in and got a list of CRP payments in about 10 seconds. May take longer to track down those gop members but it can be done. Actually I just put in the county.

[blkmusclmachine]

30. If they're not doing anything wrong, then they've got nothing to hide.

[840high]

31. Bunch of crooks.

[bobduca]

32. the corn lobby is a menace to public health

HFCS is a poison.

[sulphurdunn]

35. Try and pass a piece of legislation

to improve the lot of the needy and it will languish in Congress for years. Legislation to pad the pockets of the rich is voted up and on to the Senate in a matter of days, rarely having even been read or debated.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

38. All the give-aways to the rich need to become MORE transparent, not less.

Or we can just keep harping on how some SNAP recipient was caught extravagantly purchasing a Toblerone bar or somesuch.