Farm Waste
Daily News Tribune, November 7, 2007

President Bush is threatening to do something he should have done five years ago - veto the farm bill.

He took office promising to end the costly, wasteful - and, according to the World Trade Organization, very likely illegal - system of subsidies and payments. But faced with the power of the farm lobby and coming elections, he docilely backed down.

Now the farm bill is up for renewal and the response of the Senate and House has been more of the same. But Bush has threatened to veto the House version of that bill, and this week acting Agriculture Secretary Charles Conner said he would recommend Bush veto the Senate version if it passes.

The Senate bill calls for spending $288 billion with its billions in subsidies for crops like corn, cotton, wheat, rice and sugar that U.S. agribusiness produces to excess. The farmers are hardly hurting. Corn farmers in particular got a windfall from the subsidies and tax breaks for ethanol.

The attempts at curbing the excesses of the farm payments show how distorted the system has become. The Senate bill would limit payments to non-farmers whose income is over $750,000 a year. The House bill would ban payments to those making over $1 million a year. Why are these people entitled to that kind of money from average taxpayers?

The farm bill tends to get loaded up with programs - food stamps, conservation - to make it palatable to non-farm-state lawmakers. That means Bush could have trouble making his veto stick.

This Congress has shown little interest in reform. It brushed past a promising alternative by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that would have replaced generous subsidies for a few crops with government-underwritten insurance for all farmers.

Still, it is good that Bush is belatedly taking an interest in the farm bill, but the time to do it was five years ago when, unlike the present, he had political capital to spend.