A farm and a leg: ag subsidies forever.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings - Average Crop Revenue Election program - Brief article

EACH YEAR the American government pays $5 billion in subsidies, known as "direct payments," to rice, feed, cotton, and soybean farmers. As the economic downturn continues and Washington's budget troubles intensify, those payments have become harder to justify, especially since farmers have weathered the weak economy especially well: The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that net farm income in 2011 was the second highest on record.

So in October top legislators on the House and Senate agricultural committees proposed eliminating many of the subsidies, saving $23 billion during the next decade. Just one catch: The plan would replace the old subsidies with a new one that could cost at least as much.

As Congress reduced the amount spent on direct payments, it would change a subsidy known as the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. The new formula would modify a 2008 program designed to allow farmers to take additional subsidies for...