W VS THE WEALTHY:

USDA Outlines a Plan To Cut Farm Subsidies: Proposal Would Close Many Loopholes (Dan Morgan and Gilbert M. Gaul, 2/01/07, Washington Post)

The administration proposal addressed a number of problems raised last year in a nine-part series in The Washington Post.

The Post found, for example, that wealthy commercial farmers were easily able to legally avoid the limits on government subsidy payments. The Johanns plan would save $1.5 billion over 10 years by eliminating subsidies to people with adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000 -- income after subtracting farm expenses and certain deductions. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Charles F. Conner said that if a farmer is at that level "you're the richest guy in the county."

The administration also promised to tighten rules that have enabled distant relatives of a farmer or a friend in a far-off city to collect payments on the farmer's behalf while doing little or no work.

The plan would close a major loophole highlighted by The Post that in 2005 allowed corn farmers to receive $3.8 billion more than needed to ensure they got the government-guaranteed price. Farmers would no longer be able to collect these "loan deficiency payments" when prices are low and then sell later when prices rise.

Johanns also proposed changes in a program that since 2000 has enabled some landowners who do not farm to still collect $1.3 billion in "direct" farm payments. The Post detailed how some Texas homeowners were drawing these payments on back yards once used as rice fields and known as "cowboy starter kits." The new plan reduces the amount of land eligible for the direct payments after farmland is sold.

Offsetting the reductions in traditional subsidies is nearly $10 billion in new spending for conservation, wetlands restoration and the development of new biofuels.