NPR reported on the battle in Congress over the reauthorization of the farm bill. They told us that it will cost $280 billion over 5 years. Okay, they did their job -- the fraternity handshake. I know that NPR has a very well-educated audience, but not one in a hundred of their listeners could make any sense of this number. As they brush their teeth and drink their morning coffee, would they think anything different about this bill if NPR had said the bill would cost $28 billion or $2.8 trillion over five years? Would it have been so difficult to tell listeners that the bill is projected to cost about 1.9 percent of projected spending over the next five years, or approximately $190 per person per year? Was there really no time top include information that could have informed listeners as to the importance of this program to the total budget and/or people's tax bills?
--Dean Baker
