WaPo: Ms. Lincoln, in the tall cotton

Washington Post
Published August 25, 2010

WHEN LAST WE checked on U.S. agricultural policy, the Obama administration was paying Brazil $147.3 million to settle its international trade lawsuit over U.S. cotton subsidies, thus freeing Washington to continue lavishing taxpayer money on wealthy farmers in Arkansas, home state of politically embattled Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln. We thought this might represent policy sausage-making at its least attractive. No such luck. As The Post's Alec MacGillis reported, Ms. Lincoln, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, is now demanding $1.5 billion in "disaster aid" for already-subsidized farmers in Arkansas and other states, mostly in the South. Even the usually farm-friendly Senate balked; the extra spending threatened to sink a $20 billion small-business aid bill that President Obama supports. So White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel got her to relent in return for his promise to find the money elsewhere by the end of August. Officials are scouring the federal government for cash. Read the entire editorial here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR201008...