Chris Edwards
Republicans can’t get enough of farm subsidies. The House GOP is currently pushing another big farm bill just months after President Trump doled out $12 billion in special farm payments. By one measure, farm subsidies are projected to soar from $23 billion in 2025 to $42 billion by 2027, so now is a good time to review these growing handouts.
The federal budget fattens many industries, including defense, health care, transportation, and housing. But no industry is more coddled by the federal government than agriculture, particularly field crops. Billions of dollars a year flow to farmers of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, and rice.
Farmers are businesspeople, but the government shields them from just about every type of weather and market risk. Furthermore, just about every part of the agricultural industry is subsidized, including insurance, loans, marketing, research, export sales, and land improvements.
Most welfare programs are for low-income families, but farm welfare is for high-income families. The average income of US farm households in 2024 was $159,334, which was 32 percent higher than the $121,000 average of all US households. But Congress steers subsidies to the wealthiest of those farm households. Two-thirds or more of payments from the major subsidy programs go to the largest 10 percent of farms. Even billionaires can receive farm subsidies.
In recent years, Congress has passed bill after bill, pumping taxpayer dollars into farmers’ wallets.
- In 2018 and 2019, the Trump administration passed farm bailouts by executive action totaling $23 billion. The Market Facilitation Program was aimed at mollifying farmers for the president’s trade disruptions. The top 10 percent of farms received 58 percent of the bailouts.
- In 2021 and 2022, Congress dished out $31 billion for farm businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In 2024, Congress passed the American Relief Act, which included $31 billion in aid to farmers for natural disasters and economic assistance.
- In 2025, the GOP’s Big Beautiful Bill expanded ongoing farm subsidy programs, including crop insurance, ARC, and PLC. Look at the huge spending increases for the latter two in Figure 1 here. The bill also boosted subsidies for research, exports, dairy, forestry, livestock, sugar, ethanol, rural projects, and many other things. All in all, the law increased farm subsidies by $66 billion over 10 years.
- In December 2025, the Trump administration announced “$12 Billion Farmer Bridge Payments for American Farmers Impacted by Unfair Market Disruptions.” Those “unfair disruptions” were caused by Trump’s protectionist trade policies.
That is a lot of subsidies, but Republicans in Congress want more. The House just passed out of committee a big farm bill aimed at “strengthening farm safety nets, expanding disaster assistance, supporting rural economies, and viewing American agriculture through a national security lens.” At more than 800 pages, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 is the “most substantial farm legislation since 2018.”
What’s going on with these big-spending Republicans? Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa cheerleads for the House bill, saying, “It’s time to pass a strong farm bill.” He wants to “strengthen,” “fully fund,” and “increase” farm programs and rural subsidies.
One thing going on is cognitive dissonance. Elsewhere, Feenstra claims that he is “fighting against reckless, wasteful spending and working to enact fiscally responsible policies.” He declares, “As a strong, fiscal conservative, it is my mission to end wasteful government spending and finally balance our budget to build a stronger and more prosperous economy for our children and grandchildren.”
Feenstra further asserts, “We must end reckless government spending, balance our federal budget, and restore fiscal responsibility to the core function of government. As a strong fiscal conservative, I will continue to oppose wasteful spending and unchecked expansions of bureaucracy that will only accelerate our arrival to $36 trillion in debt.”
That sounds great, but it’s the opposite of his farm subsidy stance. Sadly, this is common for farm-state Republicans—they oppose “wasteful spending” but are blind to some of the most wasteful programs in the federal budget.
If we are to tackle the $36 trillion debt, there is no better place to start than for “strong fiscal conservatives” to cut unneeded subsidies for the wealthy. The GOP stresses personal responsibility when cutting low-income welfare, and they should cut high-income farm welfare for the same reason.