WP: In North Dakota, Farmers Wary of Cuts to Subsidies [View All]

[kskiska]

MEDINA, N.D. -- It's tough to make a living as a farmer in North Dakota these days, Owen Olson says. If it's not the diesel costs going up, it's the rain coming down -- or not coming down. Commodity prices rise and fall in rapid, repeated and unpredictable succession.

Olson, who farms 1,400 acres near here, is among the men and women who sow the seeds, harvest the crops and oppose this year's attempt by President Bush and Congress to cut federal farm assistance. They speak of hardship and fairness while questioning the votes cast for a president who scored big in the Midwest, in part by promising to do well by farmers.

"If it wasn't for the federal government here," said Olson, 39, "nobody would be farming."

No one is talking about eliminating federal subsidies, just reducing them. But in North Dakota, where more than three in four farmers receive payments -- the highest percentage of any state -- the proposals working their way through the hearing rooms on Capitol Hill are big news.

Bush proposed cuts of $5.7 billion from agricultural programs over the next 10 years as part of a deficit reduction package. The House Budget Committee set the figure at $5.3 billion, while its Senate counterpart said $2.8 billion should be trimmed.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23705-2005Apr3.html