When the cash crop is your cash

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/15/5 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

TO BALANCED-BUDGET believers, the first big mistake George W. Bush made as president was not vetoing the 2002 farm bill. Not only did Bush sign the bill, but he also didn't try to stop Congress from larding the bill with corporate welfare -- which is like handing the car keys and a six-pack to a drunk driver on parole. The result -- a farm-subsidy package that cost the average American household some $1,800 over 10 years, according to the Heritage Foundation.

Now Bush is trying to atone. In his new budget, the White House has proposed a 5 percent cut in farm subsidies and, more important, a cap of $250, 000 per farmer. If enacted, this reform -- especially the $250,000 cap -- would pull some big, overfed snouts out of the public trough.

It's about time. Big agribusiness has found ways to circumvent subsidy caps and rake in tax dollars. If you want to see how well some farming operations have fared, take a peek at the Environmental Working Group's farm- subsidy database (www.ewf.org), which lists the top recipients in each state. In California, the Farmers Rice Co-op leads with a pot of $17.9 million in 2003. However, because the co-op represents many growers, Environmental Working Group President Kenneth Cook believes that the second largest recipient -- Dublin Farms of Corcoran, with a take of $2.4 million -- better illustrates what a program, ostensibly capped at $360,000 per farmer, can mean to one happy customer.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, describes himself as the only family farmer in the U.S. Senate -- which is why he wants to see reforms in farm subsidies. "The payments are going to mostly large farmers. I wouldn't even say farmers -- landowners,"

[MadIvan]

Kill all agricultural subsidies, everywhere, immediately.

Regards, Ivan

[Drango]

I see more Cadillacs, BMW, Mercedes, Hummers etc. in farm towns than I see anywhere else....

[L98Fiero]

Not to mention the $50K-$60K duallies.

My back yard was a farmers field when I was growing up. He just let the crops go most every year and sucked up the subsidies for poor crops.

[sportutegrl]

It is an odd fact that most of the subsidized food is, (according to Adkins) actually unhealthy. Grains, sugar are heavily subsidized, while fresh vegtables and beef is not. Can you imagine how thin we would all be if steak were cheap and cookies cost a lot of money? These same grain producers must be lobbing gods. They were able to lobby to influence the design of the food pyramid, with its solid bottom layer of 9-11 servings of grains per day. This is quite an improvement over the old 4 food groups: meats/dairy/fruits and veggies/grains. Grains moved from 1/4 of the diet to the largest of the four levels of the pyramid--the only category that doesn't share a level, and the largest bottom level at that.

[newgeezer]

It's about time.

It'd better be only the beginning.

[hermgem]

Hello S.F. Chronicle, wake up, tell the truth.
Tom Daschle and his Democrats fiercely introduced and fought for this subsidy.
They fully expected Bush to turn it down, by overruling this help for poor family farmers by the Democrats.
Where did that idea come from:
Reagan, who turned the same scheme down and then lost the Senate.
Another one of the Democrat's miscalculations.

[Drango]

True, it was a triangulation strategy by Republicans to take away the farm issue from the rats. It was still wrong and expensive, although it may have given GWB the election:-)

[SaltyJoe]

The strength of President Bush's position is that he can now say, "I gave you a chance to improve. The program has failed. I'm pulling the funding." You won't hear such reporting in the MSM about the leniency our President has given many gov't programs. Because he didn't veto any last time, he's got a very sharp ax to do some chopping this time around.

[hermgem]

Drango,
Yes it was not in the best interest to go ahead.
But in politics you pay a price.
Imagine where we would be without Bush having the Senate and his tax reduction plans not going through?
We do have the strongest economy of the free world, coming out of a dished up and passed on recession and 9/11.
Look at these Europeans with their confiscatory taxation.
The third largest world economy, Germany just reported 12.1% unemployment, while the others are lumbering at 10%.
Not a good prospect when your graduating kids and students move straight into unemployment.