September 11, 2009 4:49PM # New Senate Agriculture Committee Head Received Farm Subsidies By [Tad DeHaven](https://www.cato.org/people/tad-dehaven) --- SHARE In his blog post yesterday — appropriately entitled “[Congressional Conflict of Interest](https://www.cato.org/2009/09/10/congressional-conflict-of-interest/)” — my colleague Chris Edwards questioned the selection of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D‑Ark.) to head the Senate Agriculture Committee: > Lincoln has been “a tireless advocate for the Arkansas rice industry’ and a ‘champion for agriculture.” You can see what [20 or so other agriculture lobby groups say about Lincoln here](http://lincoln.senate.gov/newsroom/2009-09-09-2.cfm). These are very laudatory remarks, but what about the taxpayers? What do taxpayers think about her support for the $20 billion or so in annual giveaways to farmers? I wonder what taxpayers think about the fact that Senator Lincoln and her family have **received** hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm subsidies? From a 2007 *USA Today* [article](http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-11-05-farmbill_N.htm?csp=34&loc=interstitialskip): > Members of Congress must report sources of income totaling more than $200, but most get payments through partnerships or other entities, so it can be difficult to learn which ones receive the subsidies. Recipients are searchable by name on [www​.ewg​.org](http://www.ewg.org), but, for example, payments to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D‑Ark., are listed under her maiden name, Lambert, at a Virginia address near Washington. **Records show Lincoln and her family members collected $715,000 from 1995–2005, the most recent year complete data are available.** She said she personally received less than $10,000 a year, and the subsidies ended in 2005 when her land was sold. Let’s say I force a stranger under threat of imprisonment or violence to part with part of his or her paycheck, and proceed to give that money to a friend. I would rightly be labeled a thief or worse. Suppose I not only gave the money to my friend, but kept a cut for me and my family. That would be even worse. But when politicians do it we call them “public servants”? ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).