Obama has released his deficit reduction proposals. For agriculture he proposes to eliminate direct payments, cut crop insurance and support SURE. The following are from pages 17-19 of the plan.
Eliminate direct payments. The direct payment program provides producers fixed annual income support payments for having historically planted crops that were supported by Government programs, regardless of whether the farmer is currently producing those crops—or producing any crop, for that matter. Direct payments do not vary with prices, yields, or producers’ farm incomes. As a result, taxpayers continue to foot the bill for these payments to farmers who are experiencing record yields and prices; more than 50 percent of direct payments go to farmers with more than $100,000 in income. Economists have shown that direct payments have priced young Americans out of renting or owning the land needed to enter into farming. In a period of severe fiscal restraint, these payments are no longer defensible, and eliminating them would save the Government roughly $3 billion per year. [Note: why they don't claim the $4+ billion figure I don't know.]
Reduce subsidies to crop insurance companies. Crop insurance is a foundation of our farm safety net. Our Nation’s farmers and agricultural bankers understand the value of this effective risk management program, and currently 83 percent of eligible program crop acres are enrolled in the program. However, the program continues to be highly subsidized and costs the Government approximately $8 billion a year to run: $2.3 billion per year for the private insurance companies to administer and underwrite the program and $5.7 billion per year in premium subsidies to the farmers. The Administration has made a continued effort to improve the crop insurance program by covering more crops, while implementing it more efficiently In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the crop insurance companies agreed to changes that saved $6 billion over
10 years from administrative expense reimbursement and underwriting gains while also
improving service to underserved States. The Administration believes there are additional
opportunities for streamlining of the administrative costs of the program. A USDA commissioned
study found that when compared to other private companies, crop insurance companies’ rate of return on investment (ROI) should be around 12 percent, but that it is currently expected to be 14 percent. The Administration is proposing to lower the crop insurance companies’ ROI to meet the 12 percent target, saving $2 billion over 10 years. In addition, the current cap on administrative expenses is based on the 2010 premiums, which were among the highest ever. A more appropriate
level for the cap would be based on 2006 premiums, neutralizing the spike in commodity
prices over the last four years, but not harming the delivery system. The Administration,
therefore, proposes setting the cap at $0.9 billion adjusted annually for inflation, which
would save $3.7 billion over 10 years. Finally, the Administration proposes to price more accurately
the premium for catastrophic (CAT) coverage policies, which will slightly lower the
reimbursement to crop insurance companies. The premium for CAT coverage is fully subsidized
for the farmer, so the farmer is not impacted by the change. This change will save
$600 million over 10 years. The Administration also proposes modest changes in subsidies for producers. Today, producers only pay 40 percent of the cost of their crop insurance premium on average, with the Government paying for the remainder. This cost-share arrangement was implemented in 2000, when very few producers participated in the program and “ad-hoc” agricultural disaster assistance bills were regularly enacted. The Congress increased the subsidy for most insurance coverage by over 50 percent at the time to encourage greater participation. Today,
participation rates are 83 percent on average, and the rationale for high subsidy rates has
weakened. The proposal would shave two basis points off any coverage premium subsidy
levels that are currently offered above 50 percent, saving $2 billion over 10 years. Farmers
who have premium subsidies of 50 percent or less would not be affected.
Better target agricultural conservation assistance. Farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners share a critical role in conserving the Nation’s soil, water, and related natural resources. The Administration is very supportive of programs that create incentives for private lands conservation and
has made great strides in leveraging these resources with those of other Federal agencies
towards greater landscape-scale conservation; however, the dramatic increase
in funding (roughly 500 percent since enactment of the Farm Security and Rural
Investments Act of 2002) has led to difficulties in program administration and redundancies
among our agricultural conservation programs. At the same time, high crop prices
have both strengthened market opportunities to expand agricultural production on the
Nation’s farmlands and decreased producer demand for certain agricultural conservation
programs. These current economic realities and the ability to better target existing funding
for maximum environmental outcomes support a proposal to reduce the deficit while
preserving the most important agricultural conservation programs. To reduce the deficit,
the Administration proposes to reduce conservation funding by $2 billion over 10 years
by better targeting conservation funding to the most cost-effective and environmentallybeneficial
programs and practices. Even under this proposal, conservation assistance is
projected to grow by $60 billion over the next decade.
Extend mandatory disaster assistance.
The Administration strongly supports disaster assistance programs that protect farmers
in their time of greatest need. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 provided
producers with mandatory disaster assistance programs for the 2008 to 2011 crops. To
strengthen the safety net, the Administration proposes to extend these programs, or similar types of disaster assistance that are of a similar cost, for the 2012 to 2016 crops. The programs provide financial assistance to producers when they suffer actual losses in farm
revenue, loss of livestock or the ability to graze their livestock, loss of trees in an orchard, and
other losses due to diseases or adverse weather. To be eligible for the programs, farmers must
purchase crop insurance. The Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program provides whole
farm revenue coverage to farmers at a revenue level that is essentially 15 percent higher than
their crop insurance guarantee. Payments are limited so that the guaranteed level cannot exceed
90 percent of expected farm income in the absence of a natural disaster
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