Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) December 2007 Porker of the Month for thwarting three amendments to the farm bill that would have provided some modest reform.  Instead, it was a lost opportunity to fix one of the most outdated government programs.

An amendment offered by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), would have capped subsidy payments to farmers at $250,000.  Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) attempted to pass a measure that would have set the annual adjusted gross income (AGI) for receiving any benefits at $750,000 and Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) amendment would have reformed the crop insurance program.

Sen. Lincoln, whose family received big farm subsidy payments worth $715,000 between 1995 and 2005, threatened to filibuster the bill.  Because Senate Democratic leaders did not want to be blamed for further delay of the farm bill, they changed the rules to require 60 votes for passage of those three amendments, rather than a simple majority.  The Dorgan-Grassley and Klobuchar amendments received the support of a majority of the senators voting, but they were defeated as they fell short of the manufactured 60-vote requirement.

After the vote on the Dorgan-Grassley amendment, Sen. Lincoln said, “I’m pleased that enough of my colleagues heard my plea and realized that the payment limitation amendment would be devastating to the hardworking farm families across Arkansas and much of the South.  Farm families in Arkansas should not have to sacrifice their way of life, and that’s what this proposal would have done.”

To claim that farm subsidies are needed to preserve the small family farmer is purely laughable.  The money goes disproportionately to the wealthiest farmers, with little benefit to farmers most in need of help.  Subsidies have proven to be very costly to both taxpayers and consumers and have undermined the rural economy.  Currently, 60 percent of farms either receive no subsidies or less than $2,000 annually.  In 2003, the top 10 percent of farm subsidy recipients collected 72 percent of total subsidies and the top 5 percent collected 55 percent of payments.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 2005 crop subsidy payments to Arkansas farms totaled $425 million; 26 farms received more than $250,000.  The December 14 Washington Post said that includes “farms run by the Arkansas Department of Corrections, which produces cotton and other crops using convict labor.  Federal subsidies to a state plantation worked by prisoners who don't get paid: now that's enterprising.”

At a time when agricultural income is at record highs and farm commodity prices are soaring, taxpayers have been paying an average of $20 billion annually for the most expensive farm subsidy payments in history.  The farm bill passed by Congress even increased subsidies for most crops, in addition to creating a costly permanent disaster assistance program.  Despite this, Sen. Lincoln declared that the farm bill “includes the most significant reform in the history of any farm bill” in a December 14 press release.  Critics as diverse as Bread for the World, CAGW, the EWG, Oxfam America, and the National Taxpayers Union vehemently disagree with her.

For standing in the way of farm bill reform on the back of the small family farms she claims to help, CAGW names Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) its December 2007 Porker of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.