Reaping what you sow

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The new farm bill that the Bush administration is proposing sets the right tone for what will likely be a debate as blistering as an August day in a soybean field.
President Bush's proposals would cut farm spending overall, in particular traditional programs that have disproportionately gone to a small number of congressional districts. He preserves the Milk Income Loss Contract program, championed by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis. And he plows nearly 10 billion into new spending for conservation, wetlands restoration and the development of biofuels. All good ideas.
So are cuts to mainline commodity programs. These already bloated giveaways grew grossly overweight in 2002 when, during an election year, the new administration ladled on the goodies for key farm state districts as the last farm bill moved through Congress.
The result was programs that don't work very well for anyone, least of all smaller farms. The overly rich U.S. subsidies were a key reason talks to negotiate a global trade agreement collapsed last year.
One proposal already drawing fire is the income cap on subsidies. Under the Bush plan, only farmers making less than 200,000 a year could receive them.
That threshold may be too low. But there is always room for tweaking. What Congress must resist is the inevitable parochial impulse to pick the bill apart or tuck in sweeteners. As it stands now, half of all farm spending goes to just 22 congressional districts. That's a colossal waste of taxpayer money and a lopsided approach that hurts the farm economy by sending exactly the wrong economic signals.