<span style="font-size: larger;">Congress is debating the farm bill this week but they are ignoring the fact they could potentially be saving the taxpayers billions of dollars in money that is padding farmers pockets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: larger;">Here are some statistics relating to Michigan&rsquo;s direct payments to farmers from 1995 through 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: larger;">Michigan ranks 22nd out of 50 States in subsidies received including:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: larger;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; $3.02 billion in commodity subsidies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: larger;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; $952 million in crop insurance subsidies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: larger;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; $536 million in conservation subsidies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: larger;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; $359 million in disaster subsidies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: larger;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 59 percent of farms in Michigan DID NOT collect subsidy payments according to USDA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: larger;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 10 percent collected 71 percent of all subsidies amounting to $2.79 billion over 18 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: larger;">For a website where you can view subsidies from all over the country by state, county, and even down to the zip code level click on this link:</span><br />
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<a href="http://farm.ewg.org/"><span style="font-size: larger;">http://farm.ewg.org/</span></a><br />