On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) spoke on the Senate floor about the Farm Bill and his concern that there are too many entitlements in the Democrat’s proposed version of the pending Farm Bill. On Wednesday, he spoke with reporters.
Alabama Today asked Tuberville if the proposed Farm Bill with the increasingly generous welfare benefits was encouraging people not to work and hurting Alabama businesses.
“There is no doubt,” Tuberville replied. “That is a good question. This Farm Bill, which is around $1.2 trillion in nutrition, snap cards, and all those things. We have got way too many people who aren’t working, and I am for helping those people who need help on a short-term basis, but we have got a lot of people since COVID and even before COVID that don’t want to work.”
Tuberville has expressed concern after the U.S. national debt recently passed $33 trillion.
“We are putting the people in this country in harm’s way,” Tuberville said. “We are going down deeper in the hole weekly or daily with the debt we have built over these many years. The American people don’t deserve this.”
Tuberville said that farmers do need a safety net.
“The Farm Bill is very important to farmers,” Tuberville continued. “It is very important to the farmers that we give them a safety net to make sure they make it through tough times, and it is tough times right now. 28% increase in everything that the farmers need to grow the crops and do things that we need to eat. It is a very unbalanced farm bill, and it is unfortunate.”
There is a growing concern about the impact of runaway federal spending on the economy.
“Sooner or later, we are going to have to bite the bullet and cut back on these entitlements, but right now, the Democrats are in charge, and it is hard to do that,” Tuberville said.
The Farm Bill is passed every four years to set U.S. agriculture policy. Decades ago, farm-state members of Congress formed an alliance with members who represented urban areas with high concentrations of poverty; thus, farm programs and nutrition assistance programs were combined into a single bill to have enough support from diverse interests in Congress to pass.
Alabama has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation and one of the lowest workforce participation rates, with just 57% of people 16 years and older working. An improving post-global pandemic economy and vigorous economic development efforts by state leaders have been insufficient in recruiting large numbers of Alabamians to rejoin the workforce.
Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020, unseating incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D), and is serving in his first term in office.
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