A farm bill seeded with greed

Ronald Reagan caught a lot of flak during the 1976 presidential campaign when he made a political issue out of "welfare queens" -- non-working mothers who gamed the income assistance system to reach deep into the pockets of taxpayers. The abuses the image symbolized have largely gone away, thanks to reforms President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996.

But the welfare queen remains. Today, her crown rests comfortably on the head of the American farmer.

Like those in the 1970s who spent years with their hands out, an entire generation -- or more -- of farmers and ranchers has grown up feeding at the public trough. Being on the government dole is so ingrained in agriculture that farmers still demand handouts even though many of them are wealthy.

Under the $300 billion farm bill passed by Congress last week and sitting on President Bush's desk, farmers who produce corn, barley, oats, cotton, rice, soybean and other crops can make up to $1 million a year, adjusted gross income, and still get a government check. That limit drops to $750,000 for the 2010 crop year. If a farmer participates in the conservation program, he or she can make up to -- sit down for this one -- $2.5 million a year.

This financial bonanza is on top of payments farmers can receive through federally supported crop insurance and disaster relief. Even more appalling, this gift is being presented when agricultural market conditions have rarely been better. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects 2008 net farm income at $92.3 billion, 51 percent above its 10-year average.

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OIL COMPANIES AREN'T THE ONLY ONES who've gotten fat recently. The value of crops harvested in 2008 is expected to rise 17 percent, a percentage equal to the gas price increase during the past year.

Somebody call Senators Clinton and Obama. It's time for a windfall farm profits tax.

Even the farmer-friendly USDA couldn't bring itself to support the blatant economic unfairness embedded in this farm bill. So the agriculture lobby turned to a sure-fire trick to get Congress to pass it. It larded up the bill and renamed it.

A bit of pork in just about any piece of legislation is common these days, but the newly christened Farm and Energy Security Act of 2007 sinks to a new low. I'm not against helping out a rancher down on his luck, but I resent getting taken advantage of, which this bill does gratuitously.

Here are some of the items you and I get to pay for. More than $40 million will go toward building rural day-care centers. Apparently, raising kids on a farm isn't as beneficial as it used to be. In fact, it's downright stressful. This bill directs the Agriculture secretary to establish the "Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network," which will provide behavioral (read mental) health programs.

We're also going to shell out $15 million annually to help "geographically disadvantaged farmers." That means we pick up part of the freight for growers in Hawaii and Alaska.

The artsy crowd also gets a slice. Funds will be provided for the preservation of historic barns. Centers for artisanal cheese, a classification that includes Brie-types and other cheeses I can't pronounce, will be established.

At least these provisions are tangentially related to agriculture. Some that aren't include income averaging for people who received settlements from the Exxon-Valdez oil disaster and the elimination of the private payment test for professional sports facility bonds -- items no farm bill should be without.

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HERE'S THE NORTH CAROLINA PORK. The feds will fund the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, an economic development agency for low-wealth counties in the Piedmont and Eastern North Carolina. The need for the agency is undisputed. But having taxpayers of South Dakota, Nevada and 47 other states help pay for it is an abuse.

Thumbing through the Farm and Energy Security Act of 2007, it's hard not to notice that nearly every aspect of rural life has become subsidized. Rural America once took pride in its resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and stubborn independence. Those days are apparently over. A series of greed-based, not need-based, farm bills have reduced the once-reliant and resilient American farmer to just another welfare recipient.