Presidential budget proposals have been dead on arrival before.
However, the Hagstrom Report says no budget outline has been as dead as the one President Trump sent to members of Congress on Monday. No one in the entire American food chain seems happy with what they’ve seen. Everyone, from members of Congress to farm leaders, crop insurance executives, as well as anti-hunger activists and grocery store lobbyists, are denouncing the plan.
Trump’s plan calls for cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and making a food package part of the benefits. The budget also proposes eliminating premium subsidies, commodity payments, and conservation program eligibility for farmers with Adjusted Gross Incomes (AGI) of more than $500,000. It also proposes many other changes designed to reduce payments to farmers. The budget also proposes establishing user fees for many of the programs within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The proposal says it would save $260 billion over ten years, including $213 billion of those savings from SNAP. Farm program cuts would total $47 billion over ten years, including $25 billion from crop insurance and $13 billion from streamlining conservation payments.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.
Image credit: 2018 US federal budget cover/By Office of Management and Budget [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons