Posted by JM Ashby
Can we blame teachers for this too? Perhaps the janitors? How about school children who receive free lunches?
WASHINGTON -- At least three of the Wisconsin state Senate Republicans currently demanding that public workers sacrifice benefits, wages and even collective bargaining rights for the sake of the budget have applied for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies, a Huffington Post review of state and federal records shows.
From 1995 through 2009, state Sens. Luther Olsen, Dale Schultz and Sheila Harsdorf all had stakes in farms that received between them more than $300,000 in taxpayer funds. [...]
“Members of both parties ... preach fiscal austerity all the time, but then when it comes to farm subsides going to farmers in their districts, they think the spigot should remain wide open,” said Don Carr, a spokesman and policy adviser for the Environmental Working Group, which tracks and critiques federal farm subsidies.
They were for big government spending before they were against it. Now it's time for all of us, and by all of us I mean public employees, to tighten our belts and regain control of spending!
Wisconsin farmers collected $5.94 billion in subsidies from 1995-2009, with the top 10% of farmers collecting 64% of the total subsidy pool.