Obama budget again calls for stopping farm subsidies to wealthy, but prospects remain dim

As part of his proposed fiscal 2011 budget, President Obama has again proposed slashing crop subsidies to "wealthy farmers." Obama targeted those payments last year, but failed to pass the cuts. Charles Abbott of Reuters reports the chances of passage this year may be slim.

The plan would "end crop subsidies to people with more than $250,000 adjusted gross income (AGI) from off-farm sources or more than $500,000 on-farm AGI," Abbott reports. The caps now are $500,000 off-farm AGI and $750,000 on-farm AGI. The budget proposal also calls for reforming "administration of the federally subsidized crop insurance system to end 'huge windfall profits,' Abbott writes.

Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said she will oppose "cuts that will harm farmers, ranchers and rural communities." House committee chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., added, "It is Congress's job to write the annual budget, and based on my conversations with House leadership, no one is interested in making cuts to the Farm Bill after the battle we just fought to pass it a year and a half ago." (Read more)