Reported in "Harper’s Index" (Harper’s, October 2006, page 13):
Minimum amount of USDA farm subsidies since 2000 that have been paid out to people who do not farm: $1,300,000,000.
That’s $1.3 billion. One program. And this by an institution — the state — that many conservatives trust to build nations abroad and many left-liberals trust to make better decisions for each of us individually than each of us individually will make for ourselves.
