Via Sallie James of Cato, I see that four members of Congress want real reform of U.S. cotton subsidies and are not happy with the proposed deal with Brazil:
“This proposal takes our federal farm subsidy policy from the impractical to the absurd,” said Rep. Flake. “We want to pay Brazil almost $150 million a year so that we can continue subsidizing U.S. cotton - only in Washington could this pass for logic.”
“We need to reform these programs now,” said Rep. Kind. “They are obstructing future trade growth and distorting the market. I fought hard to restructure these unfair subsidies in the 2007-2008 farm bill and will continue to work to update these fiscally irresponsible programs. We cannot continue to take the easy way out by maintaining this payout.”
“We need to reform our outdated and non-WTO compliant farm subsidy programs,” said Rep. Ryan. “The case for reform takes on greater urgency in light of trillion dollar deficits and fiscal challenges ahead. We cannot afford business as usual in Washington.”
“The sensible thing for us to do with the WTO finding – which, unfortunately for American cotton farmers, is clearly correct – would be to reform our own inefficient system of spending millions of dollars a year to subsidize cotton farmers, many of whom are quite wealthy,” said Rep. Frank. “Instead, the Obama administration apparently feels compelled to preserve our right to subsidize American cotton farmers by extending that subsidy to Brazilian cotton farmers. People looking for an illustration of the meaning of the phrase, ‘from bad to worse,’ need look no further.”
And from the letter they sent to President Obama:
... it is clear that our agricultural subsidies are grossly outdated and are quickly becoming a liability for future trade growth. Instead of effectively reforming our programs, we are electing to pay $147.3 million annually to Brazilian agribusiness so that we can continue to pay around $3 billion a year to large U.S. agribusiness. This policy distorts the marketplace and is fiscally irresponsible. By the time we reform the cotton programs in 2012 farm bill, the U.S. will have spent close to a half a billion dollars in "technical assistance" to Brazilian agribusiness.
