But neither party in Congress wants to be the one to wield the knife. Instead, to curry favor in farm states, both engage in regular bidding wars to raise the payments. As candidate, Mr. Bush said nothing to indicate he thought the payments were too high. Nor has he done so as president. When the Senate took up the budget resolution last week, one of its first acts was to make clear that it intended to keep the payments close to current levels.
Farm policy is in disrepair.
A Republican president could be just the one to fix it. The problem mainly has to do with the flawed farm bill that the newly Republican Congress passed in 1996. Traditional policy aimed to prevent large swings in the price and supply of basic commodities by offering price supports. The government would make up the difference if market prices fell below certain levels. In return, to limit its own exposure and help boost prices in hard times, it reserved the right to impose production controls, generally by limiting how much farmers could plant.