Payment Limitations: The Economic and Political Feasibility

I N an extreme sense, payment limitations are of course feasible. Wecan have them if we are willing to pay the political, administrative, and economic price. The U.S. economy and the federal budget would be affected less than one percent. The votes needed on congressional com-mittees and on the floor of the House and Senate could, I believe, be ob-tained one of these years for some form and level of payment limitation if a coalition of administration and bipartisan congressional leaders are will-ing to give its passage sufficient priority. The U.S. Department of Agricul-ture could administer effectively and achieve the intent of anyone of sev-eral forms of payment limitations. The question is not absolute feasibility, but relative desirability: Would the consequences of specific payment limitations be judged by our policy makers as improvements relative to what we have now? Current agricultural payments are rather highly concentrated toward large recipients (Figure 1). The concentration ratio for agriculture pay-ments in 1968 was larger than for the United States after tax income. Th