Dead Men Farming

 
The invaluable John Stossel:

From 1999 through 2005, the USDA "paid $1.1 billion in farm payments in the names of 172,801 deceased individuals. ... 40 percent went to those who had been dead for three or more years, and 19 percent to those dead for seven or more years." One dead farmer got more than $400,000 during those years... The agricultural section of the U.S. code is nearly 1,800 pages... There's an easy way to avoid such absurdities: Abolish all farm subsidies... Why are taxpayers forced to pay farmers $25 billion a year? ...Last week, the New York Times reported that dairy farmers in New Zealand get along perfectly well without subsidies... An amendment that would have withheld subsidies from farmers with incomes of $250,000 or more was rejected by the House... even rich nonfarmers have received subsidies -- among them the late Ken Lay of Enron; Ted Turner, founder of CNN; my ABC colleague Sam Donaldson; and banker David Rockefeller...

If the GOP wants to regain power in '08, it could start by slamming these ludicrous loopholes shut. Read the whole thing.