Welfare for farmers

Sometime after this Labor Day weekend, the Senate will take up that legislative abomination known as the $300 billion farm bill, which the House passed in July.

It would be nice if members of the upper chamber opted for a more reform-minded approach on agricultural policy than did their colleagues in the House. But that’s the stuff of dreams.

At the very least, however, the Senate — led by Nevada’s Harry Reid — should heed the White House’s advice and get tougher on weaning wealthy farmers off the federal dole.

Under the expiring bill, farmers who earn as much as $2.5 million a year are eligible for handouts. The House version of the new farm bill reduces the threshold to $1 million.

But the president and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns want an even stricter limit — $250,000.

“We’ve got to do something more robust on payment limits,” Mr. Johanns, a former governor of Nebraska, told farmers during a speech last week in Illinois.

This would all seem pretty basic. Why should taxpayers be in the business of providing subsidies to corn growers or soybean growers who make 20 times that of the average American family? That’s insane.

Unfortunately, insanity has been the primary characteristic of the federal government’s foray into agriculture for more than 70 years. And farm state lawmakers who covet re-election more than rational public policy too often carry the day.

Bob Stallman, a Texas rice farmer and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, listened to Mr. Johanns’ Illinois address. Predictably, he opposes efforts to slow the farmer gravy train, saying, “We believe farm policy should support agricultural production and not some subjective and social goals.”

But isn’t showering farmers — especially rich ones — with Washington welfare in order to protect them from price or harvest fluctuations an example of attempting to achieve a “social goal”?

Mr. Johanns is correct. Abolishing the payment limits altogether should be the ultimate goal, but in the meantime, the president should stick to his pledge to veto any farm bill that allows producers who gross $1 million a year to suckle up to the federal teat.