Priorities

It appears that the U.S. Congress is taking some steps to rein in at least some part of the budget. But as usual, it's utterly insane which programs will be the target, and which will be left relatively unscathed:

The plan by Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., would reduce farmers' payments by 2.5 percent across the board, slashing spending by $1.145 billion over five years. That's half the 5 percent the Bush administration sought earlier this year.

The $574 million cut in food stamps would come from restricting access to this benefit for certain families that receive other government assistance. The restriction would shut an estimated 300,000 people out of the program.

The conservation cuts would curb the number of acres that can be enrolled in the biggest of the programs, the Conservation Reserve Program, and limit spending on two others, the Conservation Security Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Omitted from the budget-cutting plan is President Bush's idea of cutting billions of dollars from payments to large farm operations by lowering the maximum subsidies that could be collected each year.

Now, reducing farm subsidies is obviously a plus. But it's amazing that when even Bushco can see the advantages of the 5% cut, Congress feels the need to reduce that amount by half and instead make huge cuts to food stamps and the environment. And it's doubly amazing that Congress is explicitly refusing to push the remaining subsidies toward smaller farms rather than larger businesses. (Isn't the only remotely popular argument in favour of farm subsidies the value of saving the family farm?)

It's almost as if Republicans in Congress are trying to build Bush back up by seeming irresponsible in comparison. If that is the plan, then this proposal is a great start.

(Via Suburban Guerrilla.)