WP,pg1: End to Days of High Cotton? GOP Constituents in Subsidy Battle

An End to Days of High Cotton?
GOP Constituents Caught in Battle Over Subsidies

By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 8, 2005; Page A01


A Bush administration proposal that would cut billions of dollars in subsidies to big cotton growers has struck at a core GOP constituency, setting off a battle in Republican congressional ranks that pits budget cutters and prairie-state populists against traditional agricultural interests.

The Bush plan threatens an elaborate government safety net that is the handiwork of such legendary southern Democrats as Lyndon B. Johnson (Tex.) and James O. Eastland (Miss.), as well as a new generation of Republican leaders from the region. The move reflects growing pressure to hold down soaring federal deficits and a recognition that even a business woven deeply into the history, economy and politics of the South must come to terms with dramatic changes underway in global trade.

Underscoring that reality, the World Trade Organization in Geneva ruled Thursday that U.S. cotton subsidies violate global trade rules because they exceed limits agreed to in 1944. If the United States does not correct the situation, Brazil, which brought the complaint, could retaliate against U.S. products.

As part of its 2006 budget proposal, the Bush administration would trim benefits for growers of most staple crops, including wheat, corn and soybeans. But economists and officials say the hardest hit would be the big producers of cotton in Republican strongholds of Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. Large-scale operators in California and Arizona would also be affected....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15353-2005Mar7.html

Why should my hard-earned money go to subsidize wealthy cotton farmers? They probably turn right around and donate big bucks to Republican assholes like shrub.

and take advantage of this situation to gain their much needed support.

You fu(kers voted for this piece of filth.

It's time to stop suckling off the government's teat. Isn't that your boy's motto?

Hemp does not damage Earth like killer cotton.

can be turned around and made into roughly the same amount of paper as an acre of trees - but not take a ton of years to grow back...

I forgot about that. I am forgetful these days. :smoke:

People have always gone to great lengths to plant, grow and harvest it and the price keeps going up.

Our overpayment of subsidies last year is what the WTO is calling illegal. This year Bush's budget is probably just putting the subsidy back to the legal WTO limit of $1.6B.

Cotton lobbyists pushed through that $1.1B increase ($1.6B to $2.7B) in the big Farm Subsidy Bill passed in 2002/3. All this new budget is doing is putting the subsidy back to previous outragious limits of $1.6B.