by Wendy Gittleson
Republicans, in their efforts to deflect blame for our economic
problems, have managed to successfully put it on the backs of the poor –
whether they be people wanting a livable wage, or people who need a
little help.
“Welfare fraud” is code for elitism. People who are barely middle class turn their noses up at the lesser, often black, people. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in “real America,” a.k.a. all the rural land between Fresno and Buffalo.
Everyone should know that welfare fraud is almost non-existent. Let me rephrase that. Welfare fraud does exist, but the vast majority of it comes from charities and storeowners, not the poor recipients.
But there is another type of fraud which is being perpetrated by the recipients of government money. It’s farm insurance fraud and it’s costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
Now, this type of fraud, like welfare fraud, is only being perpetrated by a tiny fraction of farm insurance policy holders but instead of $100s of dollars, we are talking millions.
Aaron and Derek Johnson will likely be sentenced to prison after being found guilty by a jury, but their lawyer is arguing that if they stay out of prison, they might have a chance to pay the government back. They frauded the U.S. Agriculture Department of more than $1 million.
There are many more like the Johnsons, but they are hard to catch. The Johnsons were only caught because a farm hand who was in his own legal trouble made a deal and became an informant.
While surveillance techniques and other law enforcement tools are helping to catch the fraud, the farm subsidy and farm insurance programs need a serious overhaul. Depending on the market, farmers can often make more by losing or simply not growing a crop than by selling it.
Farmers are subsidized to grow the crops like soy and corn, that go into the most unhealthy types of processed foods. Like welfare, farm subsidies and insurance were intended as temporary lifelines, but have since turned into a regular income.
The SNAP program (food stamps) is by far the largest portion of the farm bill, but there is no way an individual food stamp recipient can milk the government out of $1 million, especially when the average monthly payment for food stamps is just $133 a month.
“Welfare fraud” is code for elitism. People who are barely middle class turn their noses up at the lesser, often black, people. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in “real America,” a.k.a. all the rural land between Fresno and Buffalo.
Everyone should know that welfare fraud is almost non-existent. Let me rephrase that. Welfare fraud does exist, but the vast majority of it comes from charities and storeowners, not the poor recipients.
But there is another type of fraud which is being perpetrated by the recipients of government money. It’s farm insurance fraud and it’s costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
Now, this type of fraud, like welfare fraud, is only being perpetrated by a tiny fraction of farm insurance policy holders but instead of $100s of dollars, we are talking millions.
There was the North Carolina couple who faked hail damage to their crops by telling workers to throw ice cubes and scatter mothballs onto a tomato field; the South Dakota couple who fleeced the government by collecting $1 million in wool payments for sheep they didn’t own; and the Texas man who spent one year in prison for filing a claim for cotton he never planted.In one case, the Johnson brothers intentionally made their crop of potatoes rot by adding already rotten potatoes and boosted the heat to make them all rot.
Fraud is one of the biggest issues in the federal farm program and costs taxpayers millions of dollars per year, according to Chad Marzen, a lawyer and Florida State University professor who specializes in insurance law and regulation.
Source: Associated Press
Aaron and Derek Johnson will likely be sentenced to prison after being found guilty by a jury, but their lawyer is arguing that if they stay out of prison, they might have a chance to pay the government back. They frauded the U.S. Agriculture Department of more than $1 million.
There are many more like the Johnsons, but they are hard to catch. The Johnsons were only caught because a farm hand who was in his own legal trouble made a deal and became an informant.
While surveillance techniques and other law enforcement tools are helping to catch the fraud, the farm subsidy and farm insurance programs need a serious overhaul. Depending on the market, farmers can often make more by losing or simply not growing a crop than by selling it.
Farmers are subsidized to grow the crops like soy and corn, that go into the most unhealthy types of processed foods. Like welfare, farm subsidies and insurance were intended as temporary lifelines, but have since turned into a regular income.
The SNAP program (food stamps) is by far the largest portion of the farm bill, but there is no way an individual food stamp recipient can milk the government out of $1 million, especially when the average monthly payment for food stamps is just $133 a month.
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