Another federal porkfest. (Correction, Please!).

ITEM: President Bush, while signing the farm bill, said it "reduces interference in the market, and in farmers' and ranchers' planting decisions." Speaking over Farm Radio on May 13th, he said it would "strengthen the farm economy over the long term. It will promote farmer independence, and preserve the farm way of life for generations."

CORRECTION: So incompatible is this legislation with any pretense of fiscal responsibility that a top adviser joked that the president might sign it "by candlelight" to minimize publicity. But he did sign the $190 billion, 10-year authorization bill, which will cause serious harm and hike spending by 80 percent.

About two-thirds of the subsidies will go to corporate farming enterprises and affluent agribusinesses. Some will be paid to take land out of production and others to keep land in production -- in an effort to buy off both environmentalists and farm preservationists. Existing problems will worsen. As the Christian Science Monitor noted, "if farmers are already raising too many crops at today's low prices, it's hard to see how raising those prices will cause them to cut back production next year...."

Though farmers represent only 2 percent of the population, "one dollar in three of farm income comes from the federal government," comments former Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont. Keeping farmers on the dole will cost everyone. This bill, says a Heritage Foundation study, will cause $462 billion in higher taxes and increased food prices over a decade, and cost the average household $4,377.