I was at the corner store getting gas today and glanced over at the Gainesville Sun. And almost fell over, right there. The headline said..
Report: Deceased farmers paid $1B.
So, I bought the paper, ran home and did a search and found no recent diaries on the USDA, or farm subsidies. So, herewith the diary.
The GAO found that the USDA had approved payments without any review 40% of the time. AND the USDA does not cross check with Social Security or any other government agency to verify that these people are actually alive before sending the checks.
More below the fold
I can't find the Gainesville Sun story online, so I am using the one in the Washington Post. I also found some other interesting facts when Googling for info. Here are some to set the stage for the "pay the dead" story.
Most of the farmers who get large subsidies are millionaires.
- The number of millionaires receiving farm subsidies rose 28% when Bush took office, while Ken Lay saw his percentage of total farm subsidies rise by 400%. (Source: Taxpayer.net)
71 percent of farm subsidies go to the top 10 percent of subsidy beneficiaries, almost all of which are large farms. In 2002, 78 farms, none small or struggling, each received over a million dollars in subsidies. The bottom 80 percent of recipients average only $846 per year. (Source: Environmental Working Group)
Here is a list of some of the recipients, and, except for the Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Deere & Co. who make farming implements and have test farms, I don't see any farmers on there..do you???
* Archer Daniels Midland $36,305
* Boise Cascade Corporation $11,024
* Caterpillar $171,698
* Chevron $260,223
* Deere & Company $12,875
* DuPont $188,732
* Georgia Pacific $37,156
* International Paper $375,393
* John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance $125,975
* Mead Corp $15,115
* Westvaco Corp $268,740
Others receiving subsidies: Eli Lilly Co, Kimberly-Clark, Navistar, Pfizer, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Anyway, back to the dead farmers..this from the Washington Post
The report cited a 1,900-acre soybean and corn farm in Illinois that collected $400,000 on behalf of an owner who lived in Florida before his death in 1995. The company did not notify the government of the death but certified each year that the dead shareholder, who owned 40 percent of the company, was "actively engaged" in managing the farm.
Ok, unless he is buried on the farm and acting as fertilizer, there is no way a dead guy is going to be actively engaged in farming. The estates are allowed to go on collecting the same subsidy for two years to enable them to restructure financially, and probate the will.
Of course, there are lots of other glitches according to the GAO. The USDA gives out money on ""nonexistent or vague" documentation."" They also don't bother to revisit many of the subsidy recipients as you can see..
An Indiana corporation that was owned entirely by one person never notified the government of the owner's death in 1993 and continued to collect unspecified payments for a decade before new owners filed for farm benefits. The government made $567,000 in payments to an Alabama estate over seven years on behalf of an owner who died in 1981. Another estate continued to receive unspecified payments on behalf of a person who died in 1973 -- more than three decades ago -- without any investigation or review.
The GAO said it found that five executors of estates had simply told the government they wanted to keep the estates open, without further explanation. Local officials in one Georgia county, in one action during a routine meeting without any investigation, approved payments for 107 people who had died more than two years earlier. GAO auditors found 10 additional cases in which subsidies were "approved for payments without any indication that even a cursory review had been conducted."
Senator Grassley is not happy with this situation, and frankly neither am I. This is NOT what farm subsidies are for..as he says in the WaPo story,
"Farm payments are meant for those who need some help getting through the tough times," Grassley said last week. "Clearly there are loopholes that should be closed and laws that need to be followed."
Senator Grassley was the one who asked the GAO for the report, and it will be released on Tuesday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
So, the USDA is paying dead farmers lots and lots of money, but can't find the funding to add more inspectors?? This stinks worse than a pig farm in FL at high noon!!!!