The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Inflation (Executive Session)” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S4453-S4454 on Sept. 7.
The Department is primarily focused on food nutrition, with assistance programs making up 80 percent of its budget. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department implements too many regulations and restrictions and impedes the economy.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Inflation
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, sometimes around here, in what a lot of people refer to as the ``ivory tower,'' we talk about issues like they are abstract issues, like they don't have any real world effect. And I just wanted to touch on something, before I begin on my other subject here today, which is related to recent information that has been put out by the Department of Agriculture, the USDA's Economic Research Service, which is the arm that does projections on the economy and the farm economy, generally. What they are now concluding is that in 2022, there are going to be record cash receipts--record cash receipts--crop production, livestock production--record levels, 14-percent higher year over year. But what they go on to say is that even with record cash receipts up by 14 percent, net cash farm income is going to be down. Net cash farm income is going to be down by 1 percent.
Why is that? Well, because if you look at what has increased, increased costs on farmers in this country, they have reached some record levels. If you look at, for example, fertilizer. Farmers will spend 84 percent more, or $21 billion more, on fertilizers than they did in 2020; 65 percent, or nearly $8 billion, more on fuel and oil; and more than $18 billion more on feed for livestock. Then you add in, on top of that, debt, which, for a farm operation, obviously, they are a very debt-intensive operation. So with higher interest rates and record farm debt of $496 billion, that is expected to increase interest payments by 37 percent, or more than $7 billion, from 2020, or 2 years ago.
So my point, simply, is that, at least in my part of the country, with corn, soybeans, wheat, livestock, and cattle prices expected to go up in record numbers in terms of overall gross farm income--gross cash receipts--that you would think would lead to good times in American agriculture, because of inflation, a 14-percent increase in gross cash receipts is going to result in an actual loss, a reduction year over year from 2021, when it comes to inflation-adjusted net farm income.
So I make that point simply to illustrate how critical it is that, as policymakers, we acknowledge what is happening in the real world, because I think around here the Biden administration tries to downplay this inflation issue like it is a nonissue.
It is a real issue. It is hitting the pocketbooks of every American in this country to the tune 8\1/2\ to 9 percent for a family. I said this before, but the analysis is out there. For an average family in this country, you are talking about, year over year to buy the same basket of goods you bought last year, an additional $9,000 over last year--$700 and some per month, year-over-year, month-over-month increases in costs for average families in this country. That is a
$9,000 tax increase on every family in this country.
Now, it is borne arguably more easily by people in high-income categories, but if you are a working family who is trying to make ends meet and is putting more and more on your credit card or dipping into savings--and there are more and more people in this country. I just saw this number yesterday where one out of every six Americans now is behind in their utility payments. There are people living paycheck to paycheck, and inflation is killing them. And it is like this administration has a blind eye to that and wants to talk about a lot of other issues. And I can see why, because this is an issue I would not want to have to take responsibility for.
In many respects, all the spending--all the spending pushed through here, advocated by the President--the $2 trillion last year, the American Rescue Plan, and just in the last month, another $750 billion in spending and taxes, and the heavy-handed regulation, the shutdown of oil and gas production in this country, which drives up the cost of energy and which is reflected, as I pointed out, in a lot of these numbers--if you look at the fuel costs year over year, you actually have a situation in American agriculture today where you have record gross cash receipts and a reduction in inflation-adjusted net income. That is the impact of inflation.
