The Week

Congress went home, but celebrations are premature. It may come back.

The best thing to be said about the farm bill cobbled together by the congressional agriculture committees—that is to say, by the farm lobbies and signed by President Reagan is that it slightly lowers the price supports for major grains. The worst thing and the worst embraces most of the bill—is that the political price of this modest gain was an enormous increase in the amount Washington pays farmers not to grow. The new bill (partly under the disguise of a phony conservation reserve) will subsidize seventy million idle acres. The House admits that this will cost $17 billion; the true figure is more likely to be $20 to $22 billion. Farmers, with congressional encouragement, took out huge loans at a time of galloping inflation. They took, in other words, an economic risk. Inflation didn’t last forever; now we all are paying the bill. This was one Reagan threatened to veto, and should have vetoed.

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Congress went home, but celebrations are premature. It may come back.

The best thing to be said about the farm bill cobbled together by the congressional agriculture committees—that is to say, by the farm lobbies and signed by President Reagan is that it slightly lowers the price supports for major grains. The worst thing and the worst embraces most of the bill—is that the political price of this modest gain was an enormous increase in the amount Washington pays farmers not to grow. The new bill (partly under the disguise of a phony conservation reserve) will subsidize seventy million idle acres. The House admits that this will cost $17 billion; the true figure is more likely to be $20 to $22 billion. Farmers, with congressional encouragement, took out huge loans at a time of galloping inflation. They took, in other words, an economic risk. Inflation didn’t last forever; now we all are paying the bill. This was one Reagan threatened to veto, and should have vetoed.