It’s amazing how many different kinds of people have been trying to abolish or at least change the government’s payments to farmers. They include economists, environmentalists, taxpayer advocates, global anti-hunger advocates and even a lot of farmers. Some have been fighting farm subsidies for the past 20 years.
This past year, those critics laid siege to offices on Capitol Hill because the law that authorizes these programs — the farm bill — was about to expire. (It has to be renewed every five years.)
But instead of passing a new five-year renewal, Congress extended only parts of the previous bill by nine months.
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