Editorials

They are calling it "Farm Bill 2."

Farm Bill 1 was passed to assure people in Third World countries that U.S. aid would be there to help ease global hunger; to assure needy Americans that food stamps and nutrition programs would continue to be available; to assure environmentalists that steps would be taken to address pollution concerns; and to assure wealthy farmers and agribusinessmen that the farm subsidies that benefit them would continue to flow from D.C.

In one of those rare moments of fiscal restraint, President Bush vetoed Farm Bill 1 because he said it was too expensive and that the subsidies weren't justified when farm profits were so high.

Republicans and Democrats in the House, wanting the bill passed before they return home to campaign for re-election, overrode the president's veto.

But before the Senate could do the same, it was discovered that 34 pages dealing with trade and international food-aid programs were left out of the first farm bill. The bill the president vetoed was not the bill that Congress passed.

Gleefully, the White House announced that Congress now had time to take it back and do it right. Embarrassed, representatives and senators scrambled for a solution. What they decided was that to prevent future court challenges they should pass the whole bill again and send it — the 34 pages included — to the president.

Of course, Bush would veto Farm Bill 2 and it would be overridden. However, because of all this delay Congress would have to pass a temporary extension of the current farm law to keep things going until the new one is in place.

As the late Casey Stengel said while watching his hapless Mets blunder through the 1962 season, "can anyone play this game?"

In this case, however, the game is serious — not that baseball isn't.

This farm bill is a hodgepodge of good and bad. It is a crying shame that the United States continues to subsidize agribusiness when most elements in it are making money hand over fist while the small farmer, the family farmer, is struggling with high fuel and production costs.

But that is the price that had to be paid to get the votes to include international aid, food stamps and environmental provisions, not to mention the votes to override the veto everyone knew was coming.

This bill is a study of how the American system of compromise and consensus works. It is not pretty, but it does what its supporters want it to do, for all the reasons they want it done.

Which is what legislation of this sort is all about.