As Congress considers a new farm bill in coming weeks, Cato has launched a web resource, Downsizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which offers a menu of cuts to shrink the department’s $89 billion budget by 90 percent.


A nice complement to the Cato pages is an updated farm subsidy database from the Environmental Working Group.


Go to Cato to understand why farm subsidies are bad economics. Go to EWG to find out exactly how much millionaire “farmers” such as Edgar Bronfman and David Rockefeller are receiving.


In winning the House last year, the Democrats portrayed themselves as reformers willing to take on wealthy special interests for the benefit of average families. With the farm bill, they have a chance to prove it by making cuts to subsidies that are strongly supported by both liberal and conservative policy experts.