Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves calls President Bush’s proposed cuts to the federal agriculture program devastating to farmers and hard for rural Republican lawmakers to explain to their constituents. Bush wants to cut federal payments to farmers by five percent and cap those payments. Graves sits on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and says he’s one of just a handful of lawmakers who actually knows what a farm looks like. Graves says he has to convince urban lawmakers that cuts in subsidies would mean higher prices for consumers at the grocery stores. He says the President’s proposal might be hard for Graves and fellow rural Republicans to explain to the farmers who voted for Bush in overwhelming numbers.
