Carr: crop insurance rife with fraud, updated

The reckless right does nothing but attack.

Kristi Noem is an insurance peddler: so is her fellow earth hater, former governor Mike Rounds. Noem has had a long-time intimate relationship with a principal in the federal agency managing crop insurance.

Agribusiness spent $137 million last year muscling Congress to do its bidding and another $46.6 million on federal candidates (about 60 percent Republican) in 2010. This phalanx of power includes commodity producer groups like the American Corn Growers Association; corporate food processors and purveyors such as Kraft and Dean Foods; the Farm Bureau; dairy and meat industry giants; and seed and petrochemical corporations like Monsanto. [Christopher D. Cook, May 13, 2013, The Progressive.]

Noem has moved to the center making the seat she holds more vulnerable at least until someone from the T-zone drives her back to the reactionary right from whence she came. Expect her to face a knockdown, drag out in a primary.

Same with earth hater Governor Denny Daugaard: if an indictment for his cover up of crimes doesn't sink him, his worst nightmare will come from some yacho like Bill Napoli.

As for us: anybody in a suit can beat a flawed candidate like Rounds, Rick Weiland is a formidable horse. Campaign announcements for statewide races are forthcoming.

Noem's colleague, Rep. Colin Peterson (D-MN), has said that there is five times as much fraud in federal crop insurance inside the US Department of Agriculture as there is in the program that manages food stamps.

With no limits on subsidies and little review of claims, it should be no surprise that crop insurance fraud is common. Under current law, some policyholders receive more than $1 million each in premium support annually, and more than 10,000 receive more than $100,000 each. But in contrast to the Congressional obsession with possible fraud in the food stamp program, only one legislator has begun to raise concerns about abuses in the crop insurance program – Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). She has been drawing attention to a recent report by USDA’s Inspector General that found that USDA was selling questionable policies. [Don Carr, Senior Communications and Policy Advisor; Agriculture and Natural Resources at the Environmental Working Group]

USDA recently ruled that it will conduct two separate environmental impact statements "to better inform decision-making" of engineered crops sought by ecoterrorists Dow and Monsanto.

Hat tip: Mike Jopek.