Conner on the farm bill

Below is an excerpt from Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner's teleconference yesterday....
It sounds like Conner wants more subsidy reform on the Senate floor. We have also heard that the Administration is not that high on the the fruit and vegetable program, but the overwhelming Congressional support of the program should carry the day.

Let me just say that the adjusted gross income limit that has been passed by the Senate Committee with its so-called "soft cap" we don't believe at this point represents real reform, and really equates to no reform at all. In fact our economists do believe that it will have less of an impact on payments than the House version of the bill which openly continues to allow millionaires to participate in farm programs.
We hear that there will be a lively debate on the Senate floor over payment limits. We look forward to that debate. We believe that is a debate that desperately needs to occur. I will just tell you simply that the administration and I do not understand the unwillingness to take wealthy investors who are simply among the wealthiest of Americans, the top 2 percent of tax-filers in all of our country, off of direct government subsidies. We just simply can't understand that unwillingness.
Additionally, I have to note the provisions that raise loan rates and target prices for half a dozen crops. This is just simply bad policy. It paints a bull's-eye on the backs of the American farmer, causes us enormous trouble internationally. It's just simply bad farm policy. No reform at all.