Do Farm Subsidies Help Nebraska Farmers?

ByABC News
October 17, 2008, 10:08 AM

— -- Every year, politicians promise that they are going to save the family farm. But government farm subsidies don't always mean good news for farmers.

This year, Congress passed another $300 billion farm bill. Sen. John McCain opposed it, calling it "bloated legislation that will do more harm than good." But Sen. Barack Obama supported it.

Obama wouldn't talk to "20/20" about the farm bill. Neither would 69 members of Congress who voted for it. Finally, Randy Kuhl, R-N.Y., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, agreed to speak.

Kuhl said farm subsidies help to keep rural communities alive, and without them people would move elsewhere and be forced to find different jobs. That's why he voted for the farm bill.