New and Notes: The National Scene

What's going on today in D.C.?

Plan for Reduced Farm Spending Proposed - This sounds good to me. The Bush administration has proposed a plan that would reduce federal farm spending over the next five years by $18 billion compared to the last five years (roughly, $87 billion versus $105 billion). Among other changes, the proposal will reduce farm subsidies, but not by changing what crops are covered or the basic structure of the payments. Instead, it reduces the income eligibility cap from $2.5 million in adjusted gross income to $200,000. The change would rule out about 80,000 recipients who currently take in about 4.5% of the subsidy payments. "I don't know if there is anywhere in the country you can go where $200,000 adjusted gross net income is not a lot of income," Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Connor said. "You're the richest guy in the county."

No COLA Pay Increase for House Members - Democrats criticized Republicans heavily this past election season for accepting pay increases in past years without raising the federal minimum wage. That apparently violated a gentlemen's agreement not to use Congressional pay increases as a campaign issue, so when Democrats wanted to delay the deadline for enacting the COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) increase this year - hoping to buy some time to get the minimum wage increase through Congress so they could accept the raise - the Republicans refused to go along. Now there is no longer the possibility of a COLA increase this year, and Democrats and Republicans alike miss out. The increase would have been about $2,800 on top of the $165,200 they already make. I don't feel sorry for them.

Kerry Assails Global Warming Bill - Yesterday Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) blasted S. 280, a global warming measure cosponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), for not going far enough to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

Libby Case a 'Virtual Impeachment' of Cheney? - Craig Crawford's "Trail Mix" on CQPolitics explores the notion that the criminal trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby is a virtual stand-in for an impeachment of the vice president. Apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told radio host Don Imus this morning that what independent prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is doing is “putting the pieces together” to showcase “the tremendous power the vice president had” in outing a CIA agent. As Crawford notes, Democrats promised this fall not to impeach the President, but they didn't say that about the Veep.

Bush's Spy Chief Nominee To Be Questioned About Consulting Work - Retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, Bush's choice to replace John Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence, will face serious ethics scrutiny at his confirmation hearing starting tomorrow over his $2 million-a-year employment as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he has worked for many of the same senior military and intelligence officials that he would now supervise. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has already indicated his intention to grill McConnell on the implications of that employment for his performance of his new duties.