If it wasn't clear before last night's speech by President Barack Obama, the president stated where agriculture will be playing a role in deficit reduction. Quoting from the president's speech,

"In this budget -- in this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusiness that don't need them. (Applause.) We'll eliminate -- we'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq -- (applause) -- and reform -- and -- and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. (Applause.) We will -- we will root out -- we will root out the waste and fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier. We will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas. (Applause.)"

Radio Iowa's O Kay Henderson quoted Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley about Obama's speech and specifically about the cuts in direct payments the president referenced.

In terms of specifics, Obama called for ending large "agribusiness subsidies" and Senator Harkin -- the chairman of the Senate Ag Committee -- says he agrees "whole-heartedly" that "giant agribusinesses" shouldn't be getting federal subsidies. "I have been opposed to this direct payment program ever since it was first started," Harkin says. "We just never had the votes to change it over and maybe -- hopefully, now, with the backing of this president -- we can end those."

Grassley, a member of the Senate Ag Committee, has no qualms about that proposal either. "I think what (Obama's) getting at is 10 percent of the biggest farmers getting 72 percent of the benefits out of the farm program and that's compromising the purpose of the farm program," Grassley says. Grassley says Obama's limits would be no more groundbreaking than Grassley's owns proposal which would set a 250-thousand dollar cap on farm payments to individual farmers.

http://www.radioiowa.com/…

On the other side of the coin, earlier this week Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., rejected the idea of cutting direct payments for producers.

“I find it odd that in times of financial turmoil, when the administration is passing out trillions of dollars to banks, labor groups and the unemployed, that our new secretary of agriculture would threaten to cut the safety net out from under American agriculture producers,” Roberts was quoted saying in Politico.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told Politico he’s not for eliminating direct payments entirely. Instead, he wants to ensure that farms are sustainable in the long run.

“It’s important for us, under the economic dynamics we face, to make sure agriculture is thinking long term. I want to make sure people understand that we have to engage in the conversation about climate change ... in which agriculture could play a very important role,” Vilsack said. “I’m not suggesting something is going to happen [to direct payments] immediately.”

http://news.yahoo.com/…