July, 11 2012, 03:42pm EDT
Crop Insurance Subsidy Reforms Could Save Tens of Billions in 2012 Farm Bill
Flawed government calculations led to bloated premium subsidies
WASHINGTON
A new report shows that Congress could save taxpayers at least $42 billion over 10 years, provide farmers with a more fiscally and environmentally responsible safety net and avoid deep cuts to vital nutrition and conservation programs by scaling crop insurance subsidies back to more reasonable levels.
The report, authored by renowned economics professor Dr. Bruce Babcock of Iowa State University, explores the cost savings and other advantages of returning to the premium subsidy structure that was in place before the Agricultural Risk Protection Act (ARPA) became law in 2000.
"The crop insurance industry would bear most of the cost as farmers switched to cheaper insurance products that are less profitable to sell and service and that garner smaller federal subsidies," Dr. Babcock writes. "The industry would see lower profits but would still be financially viable. Perhaps most importantly, farmers would still have access to the same types of insurance that they buy today."
In a drive to get farmers to insure more of their crops, Congress voted in 2000 to make changes to how federal crop insurance works, more than doubling the premium subsidies. Dr. Babcock argues that this was the wrong solution to a real problem - overly expensive premiums for higher levels of coverage. The cost of subsidizing these premiums has exploded from $1.5 billion in 2002 to $7.4 billion in 2011.
Dr. Babcock concludes that taxpayers would have saved at least $4.2 billion in 2011 alone if Congress had not increased premium subsidies in 2000. The savings would actually become much greater as farmers responded by buying less expensive insurance products that met their risk management needs more cost effectively. Instead of increasing premium subsidies, Dr. Babcock says Congress should have fixed the flawed system used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to price the policies. USDA subsequently fixed the premium pricing problems, but the exorbitant subsidies remain in place.
"House lawmakers debating the 2012 farm bill this week should at the very least consider reasonable reforms, such as phasing premium subsidies back to where they used to be," said Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group's senior vice president of agriculture and natural resources. "Dr. Babcock's analysis shows that over-inflated subsidies are no longer needed to encourage producers to buy crop insurance, and the savings achieved by scaling back subsidies could cut the deficit, sustain a strong safety net, protect funding for programs that help hungry kids, protect our environment and open the door to innovative private sector solutions to farmers' risk management challenges. "
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today introduced The Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act to bring the premium subsidy structure back to pre-2000 levels in recognition of the fact that the higher subsidies have achieved their goal of increasing growers' participation in the crop insurance program and are no longer needed thanks to better policy pricing by USDA's Risk Management Agency.
Dr. Babcock's report makes it clear that the reforms proposed by Rep. Flake would not threaten the safety net for farmers.
"Eliminating the distorted incentives would encourage them [farmers] to rely more heavily on alternative forms of risk management," writes Dr. Babcock. "There might be a small drop in the number of acres insured, but by far the biggest change would be in the type of insurance products and the coverage levels that farmers would buy."
The Environmental Working Group is a community 30 million strong, working to protect our environmental health by changing industry standards.
(202) 667-6982LATEST NEWS
'Ready to Fight' for Climate, Students Walk Out Over Trump
"We won't stand by while Donald Trump's dangerous agenda threatens everything we believe in," said one student.
Nov 08, 2024
Students with the youth-led Sunrise Movement walked out of over 30 high schools and universities across the United States on Friday to stand against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's "extreme agenda" and promote "the fight for climate justice, workers' rights, and democracy."
The protesters carried signs and banners with messages including "This Is a Climate Emergency," "Protect Our Futures," "People Not Profit," "Fuck Trump," "Together We Rise," and "The Dems Failed, The People Won't."
"Students from every corner of the country came together to send a powerful message of solidarity. We won't stand by while Donald Trump's dangerous agenda threatens everything we believe in," said Aster Chau, a 16-year-old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "This movement is about hope—hope that when we stand together, we can push our leaders to take bold action. We won't back down. This is our future, and we're taking it back."
Students in New York City joined nationwide walkouts on November 8, 2024. (Photo: Mahtab Khan/Sunrise Movement)
Trump's first presidential term featured a wide range of attacks on the Earth. This cycle, he pledged to "drill, baby, drill," provoking warnings about how his return to power would lead to a surge in planet-heating pollution, and vowed to roll back Biden-Harris administration climate policies if Big Oil poured just $1 billion into his campaign.
Since Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, critics including the Sunrise Movement have called out her party's leadership for failing to adequately prioritize the needs and demands of the working class.
"Millions of people are fed up after living through decades of a rigged economy and corrupt political system," the group said on social media Wednesday. "They are looking for someone to blame. It's critical the Dem Party takes that seriously."
Students at Bard College in New York state joined nationwide walkouts on November 8, 2024. (Photo: Sunrise Movement)
Sunrise said in a Friday statement that the "walkouts represent a call to action for both parties: If Democrats want to win, they need to stop pandering to big donors and corporations and instead focus on the bold policies that will ensure a livable future for all."
Manuel Ivan Guerrero, a student at the University of Central Florida, stressed that "today was just the beginning. We're angry and we're scared but we're ready to fight."
"We have the power to win and defeat Donald Trump, but our leaders need to be bold enough to fight for us," the 18-year-old added. "The time for empty promises is over. We are ready to do whatever it takes to win a better world."
Keep ReadingShow Less
As DOJ Unseals Murder Plot Charges, Fears of Trump Iran Policy Mount
"Trump is inheriting a mess that he helped create," said the National Iranian American Council. "All parties need to focus not on threats but on dialogue to end these crises."
Nov 08, 2024
Amid growing concerns about what U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will mean for Washington's rocky relationship with Tehran, the Department of Justice on Friday announced charges against an Afghan national accused of plotting to assassinate the Republican at the direction of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Though Trump survived two shooting attempts during the campaign, neither appears to be tied to Iran's alleged plot to kill him.
"There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a Friday statement announcing the charges against Farhad Shakeri, "an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against its targets," including Trump.
"We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime," Garland added, referring to New Yorkers Jonathon Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, who are both in custody—unlike Shakeri, who is believed to be in Iran. "We will not stand for the Iranian regime's attempts to endanger the American people and America's national security."
The department did not publicly identify the reporter but its statement "matched the description of Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who has criticized Iran's head-covering laws for women," Reutersnoted Friday. "Four Iranians were charged in 2021 in connection with a plot to kidnap her, and in 2022 a man was arrested with a rifle outside her home."
The Friday announcement about these three men follows another case related to Trump and Iran. As Politicodetailed: "In August, Brooklyn federal prosecutors charged a Pakistani man suspected of plotting on behalf of Iran to kill high-ranking U.S. politicians or officials—including perhaps Trump. The man is accused of trying to hire hitmen to carry out the plot."
The next month, after Trump was reportedly briefed about alleged Iranian assassination threats against him, he declared during a campaign rally that "if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country—in this case, Iran—that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens."
"We're gonna blow it to smithereens, you can't do that. And there would be no more threats," added Trump, whose comments were swiftly decried by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) as "an outrageous threat" and "genocidal."
Responding to Reuters coverage of the Justice Department's Friday statement on social media, NIAC said that "threats of violence against political officials are unacceptable and only risk further opening Pandora's box of war and destruction. Trump is inheriting a mess that he helped create and reports like this demonstrate just how grave the stakes are. All parties need to focus not on threats but on dialogue to end these crises."
During Trump's first presidential term, he ditched the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, often called the Iran nuclear deal; ramped up deadly sanctions against the Middle East country; and ordered the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq—actions that heightened fears of a U.S. war with Iran.
Such fears have surged since Trump's Tuesday win. He is set to return as commander-in-chief after more than a year of the Biden-Harris administration backing Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip and strikes on other countries including Lebanon and Iran.
NIAC Action executive director Jamal Abdi said in a statement after the U.S. election that "many in our community feared this day—worried about the return of the travel ban, attacks on our civil liberties, demonization of immigrant communities, and deepening militarism in the Middle East. But we have been here before and our resilience is unwavering in standing up for our community and our rights."
"In the coming weeks, Trump, along with his new vice president, JD Vance will select the advisers who will shape his policies," Abdi noted. "We will not stand down, disengage, or give up but will redouble our efforts for peace and justice by any means necessary. The resilience and unity of our community are more vital now than ever."
CNN and Politico have reported that Brian Hook is expected to lead Trump's transition team at the U.S. Department of State. As Drop Site News' Murtaza Hussain wrote, Hook is "known as a major Iran hawk who helped lead the 'maximum pressure' campaign of sanctions, sabotage, and assassinations that characterized Trump's approach to Tehran."
Speaking with Hussain, Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, pointed out that Trump's previous Iran policy was largely guided by John Bolton, who spent over a year as his national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state and director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
"The Trump administration's approach towards Iran depends very much on who he chooses to staff his administration. In his first term, he was sold on an idea by people like Pompeo and John Bolton that Iran could be sanctioned and pressured into oblivion, but that was an approach more likely to deliver war than an agreement," Parsi said. "The Iranian view is that Trump himself wants to make a deal, but it depends on whether he appoints the same neoconservatives as last time to his administration."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump's Planned Immigrant Purge Sends Stagnant Private Prison Stocks Soaring
"The GEO Group was built for this unique moment... and the opportunity that it will bring," said the firm's chair.
Nov 08, 2024
The chairperson of a leading U.S. private prison corporation on Thursday gushed over the "unprecedented opportunity" presented by the prospect of Republican President-elect Donald Trump delivering on his campaign promise to begin the mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants on his first day in office.
As
Common Dreamsreported Thursday, Trump's campaign confirmed that "the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants" ever is set to start immediately after the former president returns to the White House on January 20.
GEO Group stock surged more than 56% from the close of trading on Tuesday, Election Day, to Friday's closing bell. Competitor CoreCivic shares skyrocketed 57% over the same period. By contrast, GEO Group stock saw just a 21% rise in the three months preceding Election Day. CoreCivic inched up just 11% over the same period.
"The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our company's [and] country's history, and the opportunity that it will bring," GEO Group founder and chairperson George Zoley said during a Thursday earnings call call in which he hailed the "unprecedented opportunity" ahead, according to a company statement and coverage by HuffPost.
"While our third-quarter results were below our expectations due to lower-than-expected revenues in our electronic monitoring and supervision services segment, we believe we have several potential sources of upside to our current quarterly run rate, with possible future growth opportunities across our diversified services platform," Zoley continued.
"We have 18,000 available beds across contracted and idle secure services facilities, which if fully activated, would provide significant potential upside to our financial performance," he noted. "We also believe we have the necessary resources to materially scale up the service levels in our [Intensive Supervision Appearance Program] and air and ground transportation contracts."
Zoley added that "as we evaluate and pursue future growth opportunities, we remain focused on the disciplined allocation of capital to further reduce our debt, deleverage our balance sheet, and position our company to evaluate options to return capital to shareholders in the future."
According to a study published last month by the American Immigration Council, deporting the estimated 13.3 million people in the U.S. without authorization in one massive sweep would cost around $315 billion, while expelling 1 million undocumented immigrants per year would cost nearly $1 trillion cumulatively over a decade.
On Thursday, Trump insisted "there is no price tag" on his deportation plan. He dismissed concerns that such an operation would require the use of concentration camps like the mass detention centers—which one Trump official euphemistically compared with "summer camp"—of his first administration.
The private prison industry has also thrived during the Biden administration, which is on pace to match the 1.5 million people deported during Trump's previous presidency. Although President Joe Biden signed an executive order "on reforming our incarceration system to eliminate the use of privately operated criminal detention facilities" early during his tenure, the directive did not apply to detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
The number of immigrants detained by the Biden administration doubled between 2021 and 2023. In July 2023, more than 90% of immigrants detained by ICE each day were locked up in private facilities. In January 2020, the last month of Trump's first term, 81% of daily detainees were held in private lockups.
In 2022 a bipartisan U.S. Senate probe corroborated allegations of staff abuse against migrants jailed at facilities owned by LaSalle, a private prison company that
claims to be "run with family values." Whistleblowers and others have also revealed abuses from torture and medical neglect to sexual assault of children and forced sterilizations at privately run immigration detention centers.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular