ANOTHER GOVERNMENT RIP OFF
Maybe you saw this one on last night’s CBS 60 Minutes broadcast also. Just another in an endless series of revelations as to how the taxpayers of this country are being raped by federal power brokers.
We’re talking about the Federal Crop Insurance Program .. largely run by private insurance companies. I know, sounds dull. Let me try to make it interesting.
This story takes place in Tillman County, Oklahoma. You need to know that they don’t grow corn in Tillman County. They don’t grow corn there because corn doesn’t grow there. Seems like a good enough reason.
So, what does the U.S. Department of Agriculture do? Why, they go marching out to Tillman County and announce to the farmers there that the USDA is now authorizing crop insurance companies to insure corn crops in Tillman County. In other words, they’re going to authorize the insurance companies to promise money to farmers if they plant a crop that doesn’t grow there and then, in fact, that crop doesn’t grow there.
What happens then? Well, farmers plant acre after acre of corn and then rush off to the crop insurance companies to insure their crops. Over the course of two years the number of acres in Tillman County planted in corn rise from 500 to 150,000. And, guess what? Most of the crops fail! They die! No corn! The farmers march off to the insurance companies and claim their big, fat insurance checks!
OK --- here’s a question. Why would an insurance company write a policy on a crop the insurance company already knows is going to fail? Wouldn’t that be like writing a life insurance policy on a man with terminal cancer? Only government does idiotic things like that --- writing flood insurance policies on property with an expected flood crest two days ago would be an example.
Awww. You’ve already guessed it. You’re right! Under federal law these crop insurance companies can decide which of their own policies are the riskiest and pass them off to the federal government to pay --- with taxpayer dollars. These insurance companies know the corn crops are going tango uniform – so they pass them off to the feds, and to you.
You, then, were paying farmers in Tillman County, Oklahoma to plant crops that they knew were going to fail.
Your tax money at work
Maybe you saw this one on last night’s CBS 60 Minutes broadcast also. Just another in an endless series of revelations as to how the taxpayers of this country are being raped by federal power brokers.
We’re talking about the Federal Crop Insurance Program .. largely run by private insurance companies. I know, sounds dull. Let me try to make it interesting.
This story takes place in Tillman County, Oklahoma. You need to know that they don’t grow corn in Tillman County. They don’t grow corn there because corn doesn’t grow there. Seems like a good enough reason.
So, what does the U.S. Department of Agriculture do? Why, they go marching out to Tillman County and announce to the farmers there that the USDA is now authorizing crop insurance companies to insure corn crops in Tillman County. In other words, they’re going to authorize the insurance companies to promise money to farmers if they plant a crop that doesn’t grow there and then, in fact, that crop doesn’t grow there.
What happens then? Well, farmers plant acre after acre of corn and then rush off to the crop insurance companies to insure their crops. Over the course of two years the number of acres in Tillman County planted in corn rise from 500 to 150,000. And, guess what? Most of the crops fail! They die! No corn! The farmers march off to the insurance companies and claim their big, fat insurance checks!
OK --- here’s a question. Why would an insurance company write a policy on a crop the insurance company already knows is going to fail? Wouldn’t that be like writing a life insurance policy on a man with terminal cancer? Only government does idiotic things like that --- writing flood insurance policies on property with an expected flood crest two days ago would be an example.
Awww. You’ve already guessed it. You’re right! Under federal law these crop insurance companies can decide which of their own policies are the riskiest and pass them off to the federal government to pay --- with taxpayer dollars. These insurance companies know the corn crops are going tango uniform – so they pass them off to the feds, and to you.
You, then, were paying farmers in Tillman County, Oklahoma to plant crops that they knew were going to fail.
Your tax money at work
