Farm Subsidies: Sacred Cows No More

The hunt for cuts has come to this: Even agriculture subsidies—billions in spending both parties have embraced for years—are on the table. With the farm economy booming and Washington on a diet, a program set up in the 1990s that cuts checks to farmers could be trimmed or eliminated next year when Congress writes a new five-year farm bill. A group of conservative lawmakers has set its sights on these direct payments, and even farm-state Democrats who like the program say high crop prices make the outlays of about $5 billion a year harder to justify. Recently, the National Corn Growers Association, an industry lobby group, urged Congress to revamp the program, fearing it would be eliminated altogether. Washington is looking everywhere for savings, even to programs once viewed as sacrosanct, including farm programs and defense spending. Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's blueprint for the fiscal 2012 budget puts agriculture subsidies in the cross hairs, seeking to cut $30 billion over a decade—starting when the next farm bill is passed in 2012—out of a total of some $150 billion in total expected spending on farm subsidies...more

$30 billion, that's just 20% of the carcass, and doesn't take into consideration the huge bureacracy "serving" agriculture.