Farm Bill Waste
Louisville Courier Journal, October 17, 2007

Whenever the time comes to renegotiate the Farm Bill, there is great agreement in the U.S. House and Senate that it's built on policies whose time is long gone -- and then the politicians vote for it anyway.

The House has already passed its version. It follows the pattern of many previous decades, starting with the Great Depression. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., describes it as "an antiquated system of giant payments to a handful of farms that ignores the needs of most American farmers."

Now it's the Senate's turn, and hope springs eternal. Maybe this time, "the world's greatest deliberative body" will do what needs to be done, and set agriculture on a course that gets rid of the old subsidy system.

This is not a Republican vs. Democratic cause. It's an example of how hard it is to change an entitlement program, this one for farmers -- primarily those who grow corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat and rice.

As. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., put it, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch your back, and we'll save programs that are worthless." "Worthless" may be a bit too strong, but "wasteful" certainly fits.
One of the lawmakers pressing for change is Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. For three decades, this has been his mission.

He and a few others are trying to bring equity to a system that currently favors big, corporate farmers over small, family farmers. The current system also hurts poor farmers in developing countries, because when our government encourages overproduction, then crop prices fall, and that drives down prices on the world market.

Also in the Farm Bill is money for the food stamp and nutrition programs. The House has approved a large increase, which is needed. The Senate is still negotiating on its version of the bill, but Kentucky's own Sen. Mitch McConnell, among others, has expressed concern about the cost.

If the approach Sen. Lugar prefers won out, billions of dollars would be saved. That would leave plenty of money for nutrition programs.

Even farmers are divided on the Farm Bill's approach. Many are crusading for change.

For example, Dean Kleckner, president of the American Farm Bureau from 1986 to 2000, wrote in The New York Times this week, "It's obvious that we need to transform our public support for farmers." He objects to the cost of the system and points out that it insulates farmers from market forces. He also knows it hurts farmers in the developing world, and keeps putting this country on the wrong side of international trade rules (which allows our trading partners to retaliate with punitive tariffs).

Almost everyone knows what needs to be done. The Senate should just do it.