Why the sudden change of heart among Members of Congress about agricultural subsidies, which few have been happy to cut? President George W. Bush has threatened to veto both the Senate and the House version of the Farm Bill because they add too much new spending. The Senate version would raise Farm Bill spending by $12 billion; the House version would raise it by $6 billion. The two sides may agree on a middle number of $9 billion in increased agricultural spending, although President Bush tentatively has agreed to sign a final bill that only contains $6 billion or less in increased spending, according to a statement released by the House Agriculture Committee pertaining to the 2008 Farm Bill Conference.
Despite the veto threat, President Bush’s leadership on this issue is not enough. Instead of increasing spending in the Farm Bill, Congress should be forced to reduce it. And the disingenuousness of some Representatives is apparent already. A spokeswoman for the House Agriculture Committee suggested to THE HILL that the cotton provisions could be added back into the bill during further conference talks, especially if the White House relaxes its veto threat and allows Congress to include higher spending amounts in the bill. The statement released by the House Agriculture Committee last week also noted that House and Senate lawmakers are working with the White House to agree upon an acceptable level of spending, and, once that is done, according to the statement, “the conference committee can begin to make the decisions about what will be included in the final version of the Farm Bill.” In other words, further cotton subsidies may be back.
The final bill must be passed and signed by March 15 so lawmakers are working aggressively to reach a compromise. Rhetoric notwithstanding, the problem is the bill again will fail American consumers and taxpayers while giving enormous handouts to farmers who do not need them. Many of these farmers have become quite wealthy at taxpayers’ expense. Congress successfully tackled welfare reform in the 1990s. Perhaps, with public pressure, it can rid us of agricultural welfare in the near future.