Farm bill highlights rich-poor debate
Congress and Bush have routinely clashed over salary caps for federal aid programs.
Subsidies: Sen. Kent Conrad (l.) and Sen. Tom Harkin conferred May 9 on the farm bill. Senator Harkin called the bill's passing Thursday a "banner day" for farmers and poor people.
Susan Walsh/AP
Washington - At the heart of the standoff between the White House and Congress over a $307 billion farm bill is the question: Should taxpayers subsidize rich farmers – and who counts as rich?
What income levels qualify – or disqualify – Americans from federal aid programs has figured in several clashes between the Bush administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress.
The farm bill on the way to the president's desk this week limits eligibility for farm subsidies to individuals with an adjusted gross farm income of less than $750,000; $1.5 million for couples. That's down from the $2.5 million for couples under current law, but President Bush wants the eligibility cap for farm subsidies to be much lower: $200,000.
"At a time of record farm income, Congress chose to .... require the American taxpayers to subsidize the incomes of married farmers already earning up to $1.5 million per year and expand government control over farm programs," said the White House in a statement Thursday.
The farm bill passed both the House and Senate last week with veto-proof majorities, 81 to 15 in the Senate and 318 to 106 in the House. The bill cuts traditional crop insurance programs by $3.8 billion and authorizes a $10.3 billion increase in nutrition programs.
With crop prices soaring, the prospect of billions in subsidies to farmers could have been a tough sell. But supporters bolstered chances of passing the bill by increasing the minimum monthly benefit for food stamps and indexing household asset limits. Nearly two-thirds of all spending in the bill is for nutrition programs, a move supported by lawmakers from urban areas.
Democrats won control of the House and Senate in 2006 in part by calling for a rollback of tax breaks for the rich. But the definition of rich has varied widely.
