North Dakota's farmers and ranchers are facing tough economic times right now - commodity prices are low, net farm incomes have dropped significantly and we are rebounding from a drought that impacted nearly every farmer and rancher in western North Dakota. A goal of tax reform should be to help North Dakota farmers and ranchers succeed and compete on the global playing field - but the Republican plan is going to drag our agricultural economy down even further.
The independent non-partisan Congressional Budget Office shows that the Republican tax plan would add a whopping $1.5 trillion dollars to the national debt. It's money that won't go toward rebuilding our roads and bridges, and it's money that won't go toward a strong farm safety net to help our agricultural producers.
By spending more than a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, the sequestration cuts will be even more severe on farm safety net programs. The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 requires that new legislation enacted during a term of Congress does not collectively increase estimated deficits. The current 2017 U.S. Department of Agriculture-Farm Service Agency sequestration rate is a cut of 6.8 percent.
The CBO has warned the White House Office of Management and Budget that based upon PAYGO law the sequestration would be $90 billion for 2018. That means 100 percent sequestration on many farm programs including Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage.
It looks like the writers of this tax plan will leave farmers behind.
