Texas-Sized Safety Net Supports County Voting 83% Against Obama

John Loepky’s story is one of Texan self-reliance. Starting out in the mid-1980s with less than $100 in his pocket, Loepky first found work on farms and by the mid-1990s owned his own land. Today he coaxes cotton, peanuts and wheat out of 3,300 acres of parched soil in Gaines County, getting as much as $2.4 million in revenue on a good year.

In bad years -- like 2011 -- he can rely on the government for help. Record-low rainfall triggered record-high crop insurance payouts of $125 million last year to local farmers, with taxpayers subsidizing $30.8 million of the $46.9 million of the premiums paid in the county that year. Loepky received about $1 million, which paid half of his loans for the year.