LUGAR TAKES A POWER MOWER TO FARM SUBSIDIES

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who heads the Senate Agriculture Committee, reportedly will seek to cut farm subsidies by a whopping 30 percent through the year 2000 -- ten times as large as the cuts that President Clinton sought in his budget proposal. Lugar will lay out his proposal before the Senate Budget Committee (which is working on the balanced budget amendment) tomorrow, but the basics of his plan were reported in The Washington Post today in a column by political writer David Broder. Lugar would shave $15 billion from an anticipated $50 billion spending on farm programs over five years. Clinton had proposed cutting $1.5 billion in farm program cuts -- with none kicking in before 1998. Most of the Lugar cuts would be made by lowering target prices of crops at a rate of 3 percent a year; some would depend on cutting subsidies for exported grains and other farm products. "If we are serious about budget discipline," Lugar reportedly said, "we cannot spare our friends."