Debt-Financing Farm Aid is the Wrong Approach

The Trump Administration announced a $12 billion package of aid to farmers yesterday in response to trade disruptions caused by the Administration’s tariff policy.  

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: 

There is simply no money in the federal budget for bailouts. If there is a true emergency, we should address it, but we should do so by covering the costs rather than passing the bill to the next generation – a generation that is already inheriting a record amount of debt.  

If lawmakers choose to provide new funds to farmers to help with the disruptions from tariffs, they should fully offset those costs. Ideally in order to stick to “Super-PAYGO,” and include a down payment on deficit reduction, they should offset the costs two times over. But whether done through executive action or through Congress, any new farm aid should not be debt-financed.   

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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director for Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.