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Subscribe to RSSThe top lawmakers on the Congressional Agriculture Committees are prepared with a plan to avert the dairy cliff, NBC News has learned. This is an agreement between Democrats and Republicans who run those committees and oversee the massive FARM bill that affects the entire food industry and 16 million agriculture related jobs.
NBC has learned that this FARM offer -- which will be discussed during President Barack Obama's meeting with House and Senate leaders from both parties on the broader fiscal cliff -- would likely get the most attention as a "keep-milk-affordable" proposal.
Without action by Congress, dairy prices would begin to soar to an estimated $8 dollars per gallon beginning in January. The pricing would revert to 1940s farm policy, when milk costs were tied to a more labor intensive production. Dairy is the first of many food sectors that would be affected based on their respective seasons.
This bipartisan proposal would extend the terms of the most recent FARM Act, which expired Sept. 30. The length of the extension is still to be determined, though an extension for less than one year is preferred. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she intends to keep fighting for a full 5-year extension, but believes a short term solution is needed now.
The FARM bill passed the Senate but House GOP leaders have refused to bring it the floor for a vote. There are deep partisan divides over parts of the bill like farm subsidy reforms that would reduce what are known as "direct payments" to farmers.
Lawmakers behind this idea in both House and the Senate hope to include the FARM extension in any fiscal cliff deal should one materialize
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Can't reduce those "entitlements" to corporate farms!
The heartless house would deny milk to children...but not bucks to billionaires. Sick
$7 a gallon for milk would definitely deny milk to many needy children. But, you're right - the Grover bunch won't care!
BatCrapCrazy Rep. Michele Bachman probably is one of the opposition. Gotta keep the Gubment money flowing to her family farm!
How much more conflict of interest can there be?
Congressman Paul Ryan is from which state?
The senate bill is truly bipartisan and passed the Senate which and by the way wasn't filibustered by the republican minority to block it. Many things in it are cost savings for America and is part of the balanced approach that the president has offered. Thank you Debbie Stabenow for being my Senator.
Besides the state of 'denial', I think he hails from Wisconsin.
To Mr President and Congress, a lesson from history regarding decision making and the fiscal-cliff:
"In any moment of decision,
the best thing you can do
is the right thing,
the next best thing
is the wrong thing,
and the worst thing you can do
is nothing."
~ Theodore Roosevelt
I don't know that less milk would be a bad thing. It's filled with hormones, and seriously, drinking another animals lactate is kind of gross. Of course, that would mean less cheese... hmmm.
TO: chilled who wrote:
I wish we would STOP giving those "entitlements" to the mega-billionaire oil companies.
American Girl, I totally agree with ya'
But in TeaPeople world, those are entitlements (incentives) to drill more, charge more, and get the big tax breaks, and even refunds.....They would never say that adds to the deficit.
But safety net programs, well, that's just wrong, makes folk lazy, and adds to the deficit
What WILL they bring to a vote? And Da Noid, you're right, Wisconsin is a BIG dairy state. While letting this slide will garner more money for the dairies, they don't want it as people will cut down on what they purchase and unfortunately, milk and dairy products don't keep.
How lazy is the House and do they even give a rip about their contituents .... EVER?????
Just saw on the other thread that President Obama will be on MTP this Sunday.
Gheeze!...I hope that Gotcha "right-wing' Gregory understands that Obama is the President!..
Shows him the respect that he is due!
Wow really anti farmer huh libbie, the cost of milk doesn't garner the farmer any more money. his costs and profits are the same. it cost you more........Forward. I like how you liberals want every one to pay but yourselfs, democrats republicans fine but its the tea baggers and the libtards that are the loudest.
A free market may affect milk prices or food in general. If inflation begins to run amuk in this country, tens of millions of new home foreclosures may be in store in this country.
If dairy, for instance, is to now revert to a free market system, government would be wise to make the transition gradual rather than instant in order to fend off inflationary catastrophy.
michigan northerner ...
How stupid ARE you? If the price of milk increases where on earth do you think the profit goes if the production rate stays the same? I'm pretty sure you flunked economics 100 ... 101 was too high of a level for you.
If this dairy issue is not resolved milk will cost $8.00 a gallon which means that people will consume less and dairies will go under.This will not be good for anybody.It will cost a lot of people their jobs.so if the governments going to give anybody anything it is we the consumer.
Well, that's a relief. I would have been thinking "F 'ng govt can't do anything right." every time I forked over $8 for a gallon of milk.
More failure of the government to act in a timely and responsible manner. It's frightening to think of what the failure of government, in the future, will bring to our country.
It's ok; Obama will just force the evil rich to buy milk for everybody....why not?....just add it to the list, you know...free food stamps, free school breakfasts, free school lunches, free innoculations, free condoms, free this, free that....
Welfare to billionaires? I thought only lazy commie poor folk were on the govt. teat.
http://nypress.com/the-making-of-manhattans-elite-welfare-farmers/
spider, you are a total partisan idiot. You're so totally ignorant you probably believe all these programs did not exist before 2008. How dumb can you be?
Ahhhh yes, the new bogeyman, the $8 gallon of milk!
Of course this is the lead in to the criminal Farm bill. If we don’t pass this bill the country will collapse because milk will cost more.
OHHHHHH the
humanityhypocrisy!Gridlock in Washington? Nah, they just want us to believe that. The two parties still know how to make BIG bipartisan deals on BIG government subsidy legislation. Our votes cost a lot of money. The amusing part is, it’s our own money, as usual.
Why? Because they all benefit from them, at our cost.
This bill will spend over $1 trillion over the next decade. Of course the politico’s will entertain us by calling it a “reform” bill by cutting a whopping 2% from “projected” costs. Most of the bills spending is for food programs, such as food stamps, these need to be cut.
Now, before everyone goes postal about this remember that farm subsidies, as is typical for all subsidies, distort agriculture market forces, damage the environment, and harm international trade relations.
Basically, farm subsidies are welfare for the well-to-do. High crop prices in recent years have allowed corporate farms to thrive. In 2011, real farm incomes were the third highest in the last 50 years. in 2010, Census data showed the average farm household income was $84,400, or 25% more than the $67,530 average for all U.S. households.
Contrary to popular beliefs, most subsidies don’t go to small family farms. According to the Environmental Working Group, the largest 10% of recipients receive more than 2/3 of all subsidies. Many large corporations, celebrities and politicians receive farm subsidies simply because they own the farmland. Most of the time, the land isn't even used.
Democrats claim to be concerned about the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. Republicans argue that the welfare state has grown too large. But every 5 years, Congress passes a giant subsidy bill that increases the lavish corporate welfare system enjoyed by large well-off farm businesses. The last major farm Bill in 2008 had 100 House Republicans vote with Democrats to override Bush’s veto of that spending monstrosity.
Of course this years supporters claim their Bill represents major “reform”. Whenever you hear the term “major reform” just substitute “flip-flop” into the discussion. This years Senate bill would end some subsidies, like “direct payments”. Instead they will replace them with NEW subsidies, such as “shallow loss” legislation. This program would deliver MORE aid if farm revenues fell below the high levels of recent years. So, every year that has a better year just increases the subsidization of the next downturn, with no controls or stops. This could end up costing as much or more than direct payments and cause further distortions to the markets.
Ronald Reagan described this insanity as, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth”.
In the 1980’s New Zealand ended virtually all their farm subsidies. After an adjustment period, productivity, output and profitability rose significantly. Market forces drove farmers to cut costs, diversify land use, expand nonfarm incomes and develop new more profitable markets.
Government cronyism, on both sides of the aisle, takes many forms. Solyndra, oil-gas subsidies, banks, auto industry, tax-credits to private companies, the sugar industry, the Farm bill and many more come to mind. Government-corporate cronyism leads to massive corporate welfare. Finding the real cost of this from our government is virtually impossible. Funds are literally dispersed throughout the massive bureaucracy with no simple assessment provided.
In July, the Cato Institute went line-by-line in the budget and added up the programs. The total cost came to $98 billion for fiscal 2012. This doesn’t include the higher prices of goods and services we pay when the government grants special protection to special interests like it does with the sugar lobby. Also, it doesn’t include the cost of “rent-seeking”. This is the cost to our economy for the time, money and energy that businesses spend asking our criminal politicians for those privileges. We can assume those “costs” are substantial.
With today’s massive deficits and debt we can no longer afford to keep handing out tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to wealthy farm businesses or any other private-sector companies. It’s time to finally unleash the real free-markets and make farmers and corporations compete and prosper the American way.
Mr.Spence how dare you advocate Free Enterprise for the rich businesses. You must be one of us Libbies.
See, you LIBS, that is what you get with your democratic stuff. Everything becomes a cliff and threats from the current administration. They can't do a thing without "cliffing" it. What a bunch of losers.
Spider -"It's ok; Obama will just force the evil rich to buy milk for everybody....why not?....just add it to the list, you know...free food stamps, free school breakfasts, free school lunches, free innoculations, free condoms, free this, free that...."
Ah yes Spider it is a wonderful thing to be an Obama supporter. I got to tell you as I sit here on my free furniture, in my free home, with my 3 free cars, enjoying my free heat as it quite cold outside, blogging on my free laptop, which is synced to my free smart phone, on my free Internet service. Earlier I was reviewing my free retirement portfolio, which is slightly above a cool million now, while enjoying my morning free coffee, listening to the Dire Straights tune Money for Nothing (and my checks for free) on my free stereo system. It's just amazing what voting for Obama has done for me Spider, before he was elected 8 years ago I was living in a refrigerator box, and had my few possessions in a grocery cart, but now since he takes money from people like you and punishes the wealthy for their success, I have the most wonderful free lifestyle you can imagine. I probably should not admit to this because you are not supposed to do it, but I spent my food stamps on another nice diamond that I have added to a ring I have been working on for Mrs. Grump for about 8 years now. I started that ring right after Obama was elected and I got my first batch of food stamps and welfare checks, it's hard to describe, but I designed a free flowing style of ring with loops and twist, it was very strange and bare looking at first, but each year I have been sneaking it out of my safe (can you imagine that Spider I used to have a grocery cart and now I need a safe) and adding a very nice diamond inside the various loops. Whenever Mrs. Grump wears that ring she gets awesome complements, she just tells people that Obama has been working on that ring for 8 years, that he hates rich people but loves her very much.
Grow up Spider.
Shipwrecked,
Budget Control Act of 2011
This is where the ‘sequester’ was written into law.
Voting for sequester (the cliff) in Congress was 71% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats.
OK, this is how the Farm bill laws break down: if we do nothing, then we revert to the laws in existence for 1949 and 1938.
SO, if the f'ing Tea Party idiots don't get their act together, we end up paying based on rules in existence for the 1949 marketplace (before we were dealing with a global market) AND the US government buys up milk at a price equivalent to $7.00 a gallon. The price of wheat, corn, cotton and other items goes up too.
This is what happens when you vote for Republicans: you get stupid things happening.
ARRRRGH !!!!!
I swear the Republicans never went to school - for anything. It's really sad to see their demented little minds at work - well as much at work as is possible for them.
JimSpence - and let's not forget the subsidies for big oil - right?????
SeekingSanity
As my post stated SS.
Government cronyism, on both sides of the aisle, takes many forms. Solyndra, oil-gas subsidies, banks, auto industry, tax-credits to private companies, the sugar industry,
I hate ALL subsidies. Send OUR money back to the States and let each take care of its own subsidies if needed.
The only subsidy I would give the federal government is an annual $25 billion for emergent relief like we saw with sandy. But I would make it based on the State distributing it NOT the Federal government.
I should have said when Obama was elected 4 years ago in my post above, I have been working on Mrs. Grump's ring for over 8 years now, I got a little confused, need another cup of free coffee, I was out very late at the Casino last night throwing around some of my Obamabucks.
dirp
Hmmmm, so you're OK with just allowing our criminal lawmakers to continue a 60+ year subsidy, keep filling it with pork and renew it every 5 years?
ARRRRGH !!!!!
Why don't we get rid of the convoluted 1938 and 1949 regulation and just let the market determine the prices.
This is why EVERY piece of legislation should have a "Sunset Clause" attached to it to be reviewed or expire in 2 years but not longer than 10 years.
Maybe then we wouldn't need 75,000+ pages of tax code or 144,000+ pages of regulations.
Let's try this (since nothing else seems to be working): Make the funding for all subsidies VOLUNTARY. By that I mean, stop funding ALL subsidies with tax money and let those who truly believe they are needed fund them out of their own pockets. And let's even give a tax deduction for these voluntary contributions, just like other charitible contributions. This would have the added benefit of getting the government out of the "Charity to Big Business" business. Me thinks that very soon all these subsidies would be unfunded. Why? Because those who support them only do so if they get to use the big hammer of Big Government to fund them with OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.
Ok … but what about …
Doc Fix – If not passed cuts already low Medicare payments to doctors by 27%
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) – will increase taxes on 80 to 100 million people
Violence Against Women Act – Delayed because Republicans do not want it to include Indian reservations
Remember ... all bills start from scratch when a new Congress begins ... nothing will carryover
Seems they also want to exclude women in same-sex relationships.
Gee Guys, why do we even need a Violence Against Women Act???
Violence against ANYONE is illegal in all 50 states already. Are you trying to say that you think violence against MEN is OK? Have you identified an interest group that is in favor of violence toward women?
What gives?
Econo--/The reason we must legislate to protect women is because so many cowardly men would rather attack women and children whom they regard as weaker therefore safer to victimise .Our law enforcers have historically been reluctant to interfere in domestic disputes ,therefore our laws have been persuaded to protect them from the savage beatings of these animals.
Seriously ? you dont think they know where the copy machines are ?
Layton The farmers are already getting the money. The issue is from who and where. Now they get market price from government (that's us), if the cliff happens they will be getting it directly from the consumer (us). Frankly I am glad my taxes help to keep milk affordable for me and everyone else even those who are unfortunate enough to make so little that they need extra help. Having us pay market value at the check out rather than through disbursement of tax money will not reduce your taxes. IN fact the goal is to raise your taxes ultimately and to have you pay 8 dollars directly.
VAWA makes such cowardly behavior a Federal Crime.
Saying we need the VAWA is nothing but liberal BS. Violence is violence and every state has laws against violence. Leave it up to the liberals to think and believe only the Federal Government can/should protect certain classes of people. We have to many federal crimes that should be left to the States. Who responds to 911 calls for domestic violence, it's the local authorities, who tries most domestic violence crimes or other assault crimes, the local authorities. We do not need more federal laws which mostly create more federal agencies and jobs.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year Sarge, here is the problem, enforcing the laws whether it is at the local, state, or federal level costs money and takes government, two things the republicans won't stand for.
A child's cup of milk will cost a parent how much????? lets see... 64 onz divided by $8 dollars or by 8 cups = will equal +++ $$$
Get a milk cow and keep it in your back yard. Or townhome patio. LMAO
We drink too much milk in this country anyway. Time to get off the tit and get nutrients from other food.
cows are going protest being treated like non bovine voters. Seriously this is out of the ball park.
One night in late October
when boner was far from sober
retuning with his manly pride
his feet began stutter so
he laid down in the gutter
and a pig came down
and laid by his side
and women passing by
was heard to say
said you can tell a man who
boozes by the company he
chooses and the pig
got up and
slowly flew away
Pigatory isn't posting on this thread?
reticulitermes - LOVE IT - and SOOOOOOO true! Little piggies have MUCH better taste!
@seeking
My mom told me that poem when i was
a kid, I just worded it a little different.
Been a long time observer on this thread
and a big time fan of my lib friends
like you and Feisty and the crew
Cheers !
rticulitermes - thank you! Cheers and a Very Happy New Year to you!
rticulitermes ...
Glad you decided to chime in! Happy New Year and don't be a stranger!
rticulitermes: Thank you, a very funny poem. I hope there are many more.
reticulitermes,
AWESOME little "ditty"!
LMAO! ;o))))
PS: Good to see you on the board!
Pass the American Farm Bill!
The farm bill is just one more shiny object to keep the Republican attention, as short as it is, from the fiscal cliff negotiations. Just pass the farm bill aye or nay and get back to the tough stuff. I'll bet they will fool around so much with the farm bill that they won't have time for negotiating the all important fiscal cliff stuff.
Fiscal cliff, Fiscal cliff, Fiscal cliff, Fiscal cliff, Fiscal cliff, Fiscal cliff, Fiscal cliff. etc.
Wow, I guess it really doesn't make it easy to believe if you say it enough times.
I love milk and if it even goes to 10.00 a gallon I'll still buy it.
Grover Norquist is on the board of the NRA. The NRA has openly extorted votes from Senators and Congressmen for decades. Its high time that Eric Holder, the entire Justice Dept., and the Provost Marshall march down to the NRA headquarters and handcuff these damn criminals! Voters demand that their votes be worth casting and not to let lobbyists and corporations openly extort favorable voting by threat to primary another politician against standing incumbents that don't vote the way the NRA desires. Who is pulling the strings behind the NRA is my question. This is why Congress is broken, useless, and expendable.
tracontech,
Yeah, but without the NRA keeping all those readily available guns on the street you're gonna have one hell of a time pulling off your revolution.
i will state this they need to grow up if they cant then put some one else in who can make a adult decision.
Well back to Vodka....
The Goverment mis manges so much of our tax dollars ,do they really need more???Charities will cover real needs.The Goverment is not there to take care of everyones problems .
That's not true ...why do you think Charities need government help ..what do you think those Faith Based Initiatives are all about ..and not to mention tax deductions for charities that'll really be hurting if they cut those..
If a government of the people ..by the people ..for the people ..can't even care for it's own people why have a government to begin with...
Diego: I volunteer at a small church pantry. There is no way we could provide what we do without the ability of the food marts supply. They right this off their taxes. That is just one very little example of the help your government provides.
Diego ... Off the top of my head, I'm not counting on a charity to build my roads or maintain National Parks nor do I trust them with the monies that I've paid into SS and Medicare. Just sayin .. that was a stupid post.
The only two charities I donate to are the relief fund of my local union because I know every dime of the money goes directly to help those in need with no administrative costs siphoned off. The other is the Salvation Army, the people that work there even at the highest level take a pittance for a salary, or they donate their services. I do not donate to charities where as little as 20 cents on the dollar gets to those in need while the people who run the organization collect millions in salary. Even though I went to a Catholic grade school, high school, and University, I have never contributed another dime to them in about ten years now, this is due to their spending billions to defend and hide Pedophile priests, and allowing themselves to evolve into a political arm of the republican party. I am sick of politics from preachers, and preaching from politicians. I hate to say it but the truth is that the Catholic church and others should lose their tax free status as they are far too involved with politics. When I was young I never heard politics discussed as part of a sermon at mass, but for at least the last 10 or 12 years I have routinely heard priests out right tell the congregation who they must vote for.
Forrest Grump - I donate to a few local charities that I KNOW use the money well - the Greater Chicago Food Depository is one of them. But, I also appreciate the work of the Salvation Army. They are truly an outstanding group.
@Exito: I totally agree that charitible contributions are needed. But when we allow tax deductions for these contributions, that amounts to forceably taking money from citizens who may not want to give to that particular organization. Do you want your tax dollars going to fund, say an organization that you totally disagree with on religious grounds? And also remember, the government makes no money. They just take yours and re-distribute it.
Obama is a BUM
He is intent on running all of us over the CLIFF
What ever happened to the saying "The Buck Stops Here" Now that was spoken by a true leader not a puppet.
......
For the People/ For whom?
Obama campaigned on making the rich "pay their fair share".. This going to be like all the broken 2008 promises like "I'll close Gitmo" and "I'll enact comprehensive immigration reform"... Our dumbed-downed electorate gets duped again..
All I can say is don't blame me .. I didn't vote for him. I'm a 1%'er, therefore the odds are in my favor that it must suck to be the rest or you.
Why doesn't Congress do a permanent fix, and replace the '40's law, so this does not happen again? Just sayin'.
and the medicare law that must constantly be revisited so they don't cut doctors pay and the minimum income tax for the wealthy that must revisited because it has no adjustment for inflation and ... if you walk down the road kicking a can, it slows you down. If you are kicking 2 cans, even slower, three cans ... Most of this mess is caused because elected official don't want to take a position that can be framed in a campaign ad against them.
If you want our elected officials to REALLY represent US, and not the lobbyists, and do what is right for our country, they should ALL have 1 TERM LIMITS!
No worries about what the electorate thinks, no getting painted in a corner in election ads.
Do what is right, not what will get you re-elected.
Mike,We need to do away with lobbying and also need tort reform.Two other issues these guys keep talking about but don't act on.
Mike,
I have another thought on term limits.
If an elected official cannot run for reelection then he/she no longer will feel any obligation to the electorate. They will spend their time in office as nothing more than a job application for potential future employers.
Your assumption seems to be that these are honest men and women that we elect and will put their constituency ahead of personal goals or interest.
lol The dairy industry doesn't want to replace the 40's law. It makes for a nice little poison pill whenever the subsidies bill comes up.
Mike - We do have term limits in that we hold elections. If the people don't like what the current office holder is doing they can vote them out. The problem is to many people listen to the political BS paid for by the parties and their supporters instead of researching for themselves.
@ Dennis, Columbus, Ohio, post 16.4
Term limits don't seem to bother the President. People have always been proud of what ever they do, don't you? Even 4 years could ruin your reputation as it has many before but seem to win re-election just because they happen to be of the party majority in their district, (John Boenher).
OMG $10 dollars for a gallon of milk. That is a huge burden on the ebt cards being handed out ot ILLEGALS who don't belong here in the first place. What a bummer.
EBT cards to illegals? Have you ever tried to get someone qualified for EBT? or WIC? or Medicaid? Takes a lot more than you think it does schnoepoe. Go volunteer to assist those that need it and get back to us . . . .
schnoepoe,It'll be a burden on me and many other working Americans.It will also cost a lot of jobs.This article is on milk prices not people who are on welfare.
schnoepoe - what a ridiculous post. You truly have NO idea of how things work. Try actually getting facts prior to posting because you just sound ridiculous! Listening to Rush a lot, are ya?
Notice it says "can not discriminate because of National Origin" That means even people from out side this country can get government assistance!
http://jfs.ohio.gov/ocomm_root/Foodstamp_disclaimer.stm
In the case of qualifying for benefits National Origen is
defined to be a Naturalized Citizen of the United States
I don't buy that factory farmed stuff full of hormones and antibiotics and who knows what else. We are much better off eating fresh greens and spinach which have calcium...or almonds, sesame seeds, broccoli, and even celery, oranges, blackstrap molasses, and flax seeds. Who needs poisoned milk?
RD,Those foods that you listed a great sources of calcium but they won't taste good in my coffee or on my cereal.Almond milk will not be a good substitute when making baked goods either.I love butter,half and half,sour cream,yogurt,cheese and milk.
Plan to pay more.......we should stop subsidizing everything UNTIL this country is out of the red. We should stop giving foreign aid to other countries and quit spending money rebuilding mosques in the middle east.
Ain't got milk? Get a milk cow.
just a cleaning lady / drop the just a. The rest of the nom de plume is enough.
Remember republicans caused this mess the next time you vote. They are un-patriotic and un-American and don't give a damn about this country or the middle-class.
jaxminst,I am confident that this issue will be taken care of because the dairy farmers in California are Republicans.
Jaxminst.....All of the programs and entitlements have been passed in DEMOCRAT administrations, except the Medicare Part D(prescription drug coverage by Bush). So if you want to blame anyone blame the DemocRATS for taking us down the path to destruction. They have passed these bills to gain votes and keep themselves in Congress, which by the way includes both the Senate and House of Representatives. The House Repubs want to reduce the spending habit in Washington.....Obama and Harry Reid will have nothing to do with it. Obama talks about his $1.2 trillion in debt cuts, BUT it is the $760 BILLION IN CUT TO MEDICARE(thanks to OBAMACARE) AND $500 BILLION TO THE MILITARY to also help pay for OBAMACARE. Obama is a total incompetent pres. How about he and his family quit taking the Air force One out every week. That costs millions everytime. Nothing like flouting his money!!
I despise democrats. They want to take money from someone at the point of a gun and give it to some POS.
Democrats are evil, immoral and greedy leeches.
The tax cut for the rich means money is taken from someone and given to them.
Don't you think it's your money too?
Typical liberals - their overlord says that milk will go up to $8/gal and the sheep believe!
The moment milk is $8/gal, there will be a flood of people who'll figure out how to make it cheaper. That's kind of how the free market works. People want to undercut other people to steal part of market from them.
The milk is expensive now still ONLY because because of government subsidies!
jimbouza,Explain to me how anybody will be able to produce milk cheaper than the dairy farmers?Do you have any idea on the cost of feed due to the drought? Cows don't milk themselves.Dairies,the large ones employ dozens of people.Milk truck drivers,farm animals vetenarians,milking equipment,feed truck drivers,farmers who plant and sow the field,fuel for their equipment and I could go on.These are some of costs and the jobs that are required in order to run a dairy.
The Federal Government, through the milk marketing agency, sets the price of all the milk in the US. Dairy farmers only receive a support price for milk if it gets to $10.00 per hundred weight. Current price is $18.39. A gallon of milk weighs 8.62 for whole milk, so you do the math. Milk price is set by use (fluid, culture,cheese, butter, manufacturing and based on area.
Of course, 80% of the farm bill is food stamps. That's the hang-up.
jimboza,
Some Chinese already did, and they're dead now, executed, after killing and damaging many children. Before FDA, there were reports of merchants adding chalk and water to milk.
RD - what particular antibiotic does farmed stuff have? Are you sure that your "fresh" green don't have antibiotics in them?
A modest prediction which we'll never see:
Drop all farm price supports and payments to farmers. AND, drop the ethanol requirement for gasoline.
Do that and you'll see food prices drop world-wide.
What fantasy world do you live in ??? Price supports in dairy keeps the grocery prices down because if the dairy farmers can't make money at producing they will have less cows thus producing less milk which will ultimately raise your prices because of supply & demand. Same goes for corn / wheat / beans ect... Global markets you know. More & more people consuming and less farmland every year.
Take food stamps out of the farm bill and the total amount drops considerably
Deb/ food stamps are given to help the poor and under-payed citizens to survive. I do not think that having them starve to death slowly is helping an unfortunate part of our society nor is advocated in your Christian Doctrine.I know it is not considered acceptable in mine.Merry Christmas
Perhaps we should go over the cliff, if lawmakers continue to cherry pick programs it wishes to continue. Like the milk program, lawmakers have been busy passing military appropriations for programs that are pork for some Senators and Congressmen. The whole thing is getting to be a joke. And those without the heavy duty lobbyists are going to be the ones who make the cuts and get their taxes increased. I makes me want to puke.
Yet another minority opinion...
If we go over the dreaded cliff, taxes will still be way less than necessary to even run a reasonable deficit even with the sequester. EVEN WITH THE INCREASED TAXES AND REDUCED SPENDING, we will still have a ridiculous deficit.
So-called "economists" seem to tell us that we need trillion dollar deficits forever. Really? When Greece acts like the U.S., everyone demands austerity. Why not the U.S.?
You say you don't like increased taxes? Well, tough. That's what it takes to make a dent in the deficit. Don't want lower spending? Tough again. We're far worse than broke, and nobody has a plan to even come close to fixing the problem. The "Cliff" is a start. I say go for it.