Ah, the smell of freshly harvested greed...and it's a bumper crop!
According to a Washington Post investigation, last year, crop insurance companies made $927 million in profit, they received an additional $829 million from the government in administrative fees to help run the program, and taxpayers contributed an additional $2.3 billion to subsidize premium payments for farmers - all to pay farmers $752 million for losses from bad weather. Full Story
1 comment:
The Washington Post article was based on a flawed understanding of the crop insurance program.
Crop 1 was given MONOPOLISTIC priveleges BY the government. The industry opposed Crop 1's actions because they weren't permitted to compete by the government. In short, Crop 1 was given carte blanche permission to undercut everyone else's prices.
Furthermore, the government did not spend 2.3 billion on the program. They spent the difference between the total losses of the farm industry (2.3 billion) and the total amount of premiums that farmers paid in (1.6 billion). The government's contribution was 750 million.
Post a Comment