2019年，農民從納稅人那里得到了數十億美元，幾乎沒有人反對

2019年，農民從納稅人那里得到了數十億美元，幾乎沒有人反對

In 2019. the federal government delivered an extraordinary financial aid package to America's farmers. Farm subsidies jumped to their highest level in fourteen years, most of them paid out without any action by Congress.

2019年，聯(lián)邦政府向美國農民提供了一項特別的財政援助計劃。農業(yè)補貼躍升至14年來的最高水平，其中大部分是在國會沒有采取任何行動的情況下發(fā)放的。

The money flowed to farms like Robert Henry's. When I visited in early July, many of his fields near New Madrid, Mo., had been flooded for months, preventing him from working in them. The soybeans that he did manage to grow had fallen in value.

這些錢流向了像羅伯特·亨利這樣的農場。7月初我去拜訪他時，他在密蘇里州新馬德里附近的許多田地已經淹了好幾個月，無法在那里工作。他種的大豆已經貶值了。

That's when the government stepped in. Some of the aid came from long-familiar programs. Government-subsidized crop insurance covered some of the losses from flooding. Other payments were unprecedented. The U.S. Department of Agriculture simply sent him a check to compensate him for the low prices resulting from the trade war.

這時政府介入了。一些援助來自人們熟悉已久的項目。政府補貼的農作物保險彌補了洪水造成的部分損失。其他的付款是前所未有的。美國農業(yè)部只是給了他一張支票，以補償他在貿易戰(zhàn)中獲得的低價。

"'Trump money' is what we call it," Henry said. "It helped a lot. And it's my understanding, they're going to do it again."

“我們管它叫‘特朗普錢’，”亨利說。“這幫了大忙。據我所知，他們還會再補貼一次。”

Indeed, a few weeks later, the USDA announced another $16 billion in trade-related aid to farmers. It came on top of the previous year's $12 billion package, for a grand total of $28 billion in two years. About $19 billion of that money had been paid out by the end of 2019. and the rest will be paid in 2020.

事實上，幾周后，美國農業(yè)部宣布向農民提供160億美元的貿易相關援助。它是在前一年的120億美元的一攬子計劃之上，兩年內總計280億美元。其中大約190億美元已經在2019年底支付出去，其余的將在2020年支付。

"President Trump has great affection for America's farmers and ranchers. He knows that they're fighting the fight and that they're on the front lines," Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told reporters while announcing the aid package.

“特朗普總統(tǒng)對美國農民和牧場主有著深厚的感情。他知道他們在戰(zhàn)斗，他們在前線，”農業(yè)部長桑尼·珀杜在宣布援助方案時告訴記者。

The announcement aroused little controversy. "I was surprised that it didn't attract more attention," says Joe Glauber, the USDA's former chief economist, who's now a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

這項宣布沒有引起什么爭議。美國農業(yè)部前首席經濟學家、現(xiàn)為國際糧食政策研究所高級研究員的喬•格勞伯表示:“我很驚訝它沒有引起更多關注。”

Glauber says it deserves more attention, for a whole collection of reasons.

格勞伯說，由于各種各樣的原因，它應該得到更多的關注。

For one thing, it's an enormous amount of money, more than the final cost of bailing out the auto industry during the financial crisis of 2008. The auto industry bailout was fiercely debated in Congress. Yet the USDA created this new program out of thin air; it decided that an old law authorizing a USDA program called the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) already gave it the authority to spend this money.

首先，這是一筆巨額資金，超過了2008年金融危機期間救助汽車業(yè)的最終成本。國會對汽車業(yè)救助計劃進行了激烈的辯論。然而，美國農業(yè)部憑空創(chuàng)造了這個新項目;它決定，一項授權美國農業(yè)部一個名為商品信貸公司(CCC)的項目的舊法律已經授權它使用這筆錢。

"What's unique about this is, [it] didn't go through Congress," Glauber says. Some people have raised questions about whether using the CCC for this new purpose is legal.

格勞伯說:“這件事的獨特之處在于，它沒有經過國會的批準。一些人質疑將CCC用于這一新目的是否合法。

Glauber sees a risk of "moral hazard" — a situation in which someone is shielded from the consequences of poor decisions. The decision to start the trade war was costly, he says, and the Trump Administration, by tapping the federal treasury, is avoiding the political fallout from that decision. "The sector that is hurt the most, and which would normally complain, all of a sudden it's assuaged by these payments. To me, that's a problem," he says.

格勞伯認為這是一種“道德風險”的風險——在這種情況下，人們被保護起來，不受錯誤決策的影響。他說，發(fā)動貿易戰(zhàn)的決定代價高昂，而特朗普政府通過動用聯(lián)邦財政部，避免了這一決定的政治后果。“受影響最嚴重的行業(yè)通常會抱怨，但突然間，這些付款緩解了這種情況。對我來說，這是個問題。

Also, the payments are quite generous. According to studies by several independent economists, the USDA is paying farmers roughly twice as much as the actual harm that they suffered from the trade war. And the payments are based on production; the bigger the farm, the bigger the payments. Thousands of farmers got more than $100.000 each. According to an NPR analysis of USDA records of payments made through July 2019. 100.000 individuals collected just over 70 percent of the money.

而且，付款也很慷慨。根據幾位獨立經濟學家的研究，美國農業(yè)部付給農民的錢大約是他們在貿易戰(zhàn)中實際損失的兩倍。并且付款是基于生產的;農場越大，支付就越多。成千上萬的農民每人得到了超過10萬美元。據美國國家公共電臺(NPR)對美國農業(yè)部截至2019年7月的付款記錄進行的分析顯示，有10萬人獲得了超過70%的資金。

The USDA has not yet announced whether it will deliver another round of trade-related payments to farmers in 2020.

美國農業(yè)部尚未宣布是否會在2020年向農民發(fā)放另一輪與貿易相關的補貼。