Farm Bill Compromises and Gerrymandering

This bill is usually a place where the GOP and Democrats find a way to meet in the middle because it is nothing but a mix of old fashioned pork and compassion for the poor, which D.C. prosperity put on steroids.

There is no question this bill is out of control in terms of total dollars and the Senate bill made some progress on curbing it.  Although it did not go far enough in curbing excessive support for farmers (because there are Senators whose farms get the money and then they scratch each other's back legislatively to get things done) and it probably did not even make a good faith effort to satisfy some GOP members on food stamps, so I will propose a path to compromise.

1st, separate the two things.  Farm subsidies and food stamps.  And do not allow anything else in either bill.

2nd:  Vote on farm subsidies for each crop individually and aim the price supports only for farmers whose Taxable Income is less than $100,000 and do not have any other income.  (yes, Mr. Tennessee Senator, that would be YOU)  And do not pay anyone not to grow something.

3rd:  Vote on food subsidies and treat food stamps for what they are;  a form of welfare to help the poor and working poor.  You don't need to include a work requirement, because welfare already captures that for the non-working and the working poor are already working.  Plus what % of the recent growth in food stamp recipients is poor seniors?  Is the GOP going to put a work requirement on people over 65? 70? 75?  There are many people over 55 who would like to work and cannot find work because of age discrimination.  Who is going to give a 65 year old a job on workfare?

But I will admit that food stamp use has grown dramatically and I can understand that the GOP does not believe this is all legitimate.  So there has to be some way to monitor legitimacy and a reasonable debate can be had that eligibility should end on a different means tested basis than it is currently.  I think the current means testing is a flat income level which is fairly high to help the working lower middle class with children, but lets in no child families of the same income.  This could be changed to reflect the number of people in a household and perhaps lowered somewhat.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of support for all this out there in the country and in the Congress.  Yet, the dysfunctional House could not find common ground.  I know gerrymandering is considered politics as usual, but I would really like to put an end to it.  Make districts represent an continuous area and let the elections fall where they may.  At least then, hopefully, Congress people would worry more about their appeal in the general election than the primary election.