The Washington Post was a triple threat today on the farm bill, with Dan Morgan's story, the op-ed from George McGovern and Bob Dole, and this rippin' good editorial page rant on the sugar giveaways in the farm bill.

THE DEADLINE for completion of a new farm bill has been pushed back to May 16. But the endless wrangling over a piece of legislation that Congress once hoped to finish in 2007 has not induced a significant change in the thinking of those who regard it as an opportunity to lock in lush new benefits for American agricultural producers. President Bush has reportedly relaxed his position on means-testing for farm subsidies, offering to permit individuals earning up to $500,000 to continue receiving direct payments. Yet farm-state lawmakers are holding out for a level nearly twice that.

Among the least defensible provisions under discussion is a plan by those lawmakers to prop up U.S. sugar cane and sugar beet farmers.

. . .the [sugar] lobby and its Capitol Hill supporters have come up with an ingenious new way to protect the industry: raising the support price for U.S. sugar, already above the world price, for the first time in 23 years, while requiring the federal government to set aside a certain quantity of imported sugar for conversion to ethanol.