'This [Farm Bill] is the Very Best We Could Do in Committee'

- Rep. Steve Kagen, M.D. (D-Appleton) July 21, 2007 in the Appleton Post-Crescent

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this is the look of "the very best."

The red dots are people deemed "farmers" who collect subsidy checks greater than $250,000 a year. The big red dots are those getting checks in essence of $2 million.

These are the new numbers under "the very best" the House Ag Committee could do. (HT: The Corner)

The farm bill passed by House Democrats in July would continue giving millionaires farm subsidies (setting the income threshold for payments at $1 million a year, and keeping loopholes in place that allow some making much more to qualify). The Bush administration has proposed sharply reducing the income threshold to $200,000 a year and ending many of those loopholes. That would reduce the number of subsidy recipients by less than 40,000 (of the current million or so recipients).

For the best analysis on the 2007 Ag Bill, please read the Heritage Foundation's Brian Riedl, a Wisconsin-Madison graduate.

The 2007 Ag Bill is a joke. Editorials across the nation from the Washington Post to the Wisconsin State Journal have called it as such.

Some have called it what it truly is: More of the same.