When the Republicans got control of Congress in January of 1995 they took care of friends. Cotton Subsidies by year, Texas (millions of dollars) 1995-----11 1996----192 1997----177 1998----335 1999----511 2000----488 2001----708 2002----583 2003----807 2004----475 2005--1,036 That's $5 billion just for a cotton teat suck in Texas! Do you know that most of the cotton grown in the USA is exported. Just look at the label on your clothes for that information. Guess what country is the number one importer of US cotton? You got it. China. US taxpayers are subsidizing t-shirt manufacturing in China. Is that patriotic? Tom Delay's district got a lion's share of the handouts. Data from www.ewg.org