The Senate Agricultural Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is now positioning herself as one of Monsanto’s greatest defenders.

Big agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and Cargill are among the most profitable companies in the world. Yet every year taxpayers give these corporations billions in subsidies, authorized by the Farm Bill. At a time when Washington is obsessed with cutting the budget, these unjustifiable handouts should be the first thing on the chopping block, so that budget cuts don’t fall on those who actually need our help.

Farm subsidies were originally put in place during the Great Depression to provide a safety net for struggling family farms. But since then, Monsanto and their allies in Congress have hijacked the program: 74% of these subsidies now go to the largest 4% of corporate farms.

The Farm Bill is now up for reauthorization, which only happens every five years — that means that if we don’t fix it now, these taxpayer handouts will be locked in place for half a decade. For this reason, lawmakers have proposed sensible Amendments to the Farm Bill to cap the amount of subsidies corporate mega-farms can receive.

But Senator Stabenow wouldn’t stand for it. She removed these caps from the most recent version of the bill, claiming this would provide more “flexibility.” Flexibility? What does that even mean?

If you ask me, it’s about time taxpayers stop being so darn flexible when giving away money to big agribusinesses like Monsanto that don’t need assistance, so we’ll have a bit more “flexibility” in the budget to help those that do.