You hear an awful lot from the Republican Party about the woes of welfare. Boy it is terrible to give money to poor people. It robs them of their self esteem and creates a culture of helplessness. Isn't that about their story?

Check out the AJC today for an item on welfare for the rich that costs 50% more than the dole that the GOP is so concerned about.

"The federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post.

Some of them collect hundreds of thousands of dollars without planting a seed. Mary Anna Hudson, 87, of Houston has received $191,000 over the past decade. For Houston surgeon Jimmy Frank Howell, the total was $490,709.

"I don't agree with the government's policy," said asphalt contractor Donald R. Matthews, 67, whose 18-acre suburban lot near El Campo receives about $1,300 in annual "direct payments," because years ago the land was used to grow rice.

. . . the payments have grown into a . . . subsidy that benefits millionaire landowners, foreign speculators and absentee landlords, as well as farmers. . .

The cash comes with so few restrictions that subdivision developers who buy farmland advertise that homeowners can collect farm subsidies on their new backyards. . .

In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare.

The Post's nine-month investigation found farm subsidy programs that have become so all-encompassing that they have taken much of the risk out of farming for the increasingly wealthy individuals who dominate it."


So can someone explain to me why welfare for the rich is not a concern of the GOP? And don't even get me started on the money for the highway department which can't be diverted to mass transit.