President Reagan, returning to his home state to garner farm support for Republican candidates, announced plans Tuesday to expand federal payments to farmers for storing surplus grains.
In a major speech on farm policy at the Illinois State Fair, Reagan said the move would cover an expected bumper crop of wheat, corn and other grains this year that could not be stored in scarce silos and grain elevators, a requirement for federal price-support loans.
”Grain unable to make it into storage, even grain simply stored on the ground, remains eligible for farm support loans,” said Reagan, who spoke to a cheering grandstand crowd.
”Farmers need these harvest loans, and we intend to see that they get them, regardless of problems with storage that are beyond their control.”
Administration officials said the move would cost at least $200 million, adding to federal farm programs that, by some estimates, may top $30 billion this fiscal year.
Outside the grandstand, a handful of protesters carried placards urging the United States to end all aid to the contras in Nicaragua and to stop the bombing in El Salvador.
But inside, where the jubilant Reagan supporters waved signs saying
”Repeal the 22d Amendment,” which limits presidents to two terms, the crowd jumped to its feet and started cheering the minute they saw Reagan`s motorcade enter the grandstand area.
Reagan doffed his coat in the bright sunshine and spoke to the crowd in his shirtsleeves.
Reagan`s announcement on grain storage represents a victory for Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R., Kan.) and other farm-state lawmakers up for re- election who are concerned that the nation`s farm crisis could threaten Republicans` razor-thin 53-47 majority in the Senate.
Turning to the problems of agriculture in another hard-hit region of the country, the President announced that he would order Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng to direct a new federal task force aimed at helping farmers in the drought-stricken Southeast.
Lyng had set up his own task force weeks ago to address drought problems, but the administration has been under fire from congressional Democrats who claim its response to weather problems in the southeast has been inadequate.
The expanded drought task force will include representatives from the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Interior and Health and Human Services, as well as the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Its job would be to coordinate existing federal programs, speed up assistance available through them and help identify hardest-hit areas.
In his program for Midwestern farmers, Reagan said he would order Lyng to make the new price-support loans available immediately.
A fact-sheet released by the White House said this year`s expected near-record harvest, combined with already scarce storage space, has resulted in surpluses ”for which there may be no storage facilities.”
Under current Agriculture Department rules, these tons of grain would not be eligible for price-support loans.
”In addition to helping farmers by allowing more people to paricipate in the price-support loan program, this action will help alleviate tight storage problems and help farmers avoid high commercial storage rates,” the fact sheet said.
Reagan, kicking off a day that would take him to two Republican fundraisers and a nationally televised news conference in Chicago, defended his administration`s efforts on behalf of farmers during a brief, 90-minute visit to the state fair.
”My friends, I`m here to tell you that America has too much at stake in her farms–too much history, too much pride–not to help in hard times,” the President said. ”I give you our promise: The nation will see our farmers through.”
Reagan cited as an example his recent controversial decision to subsidize wheat sales to the Soviet Union.
Putting the best face possible on a policy attacked by domestic critics and foreign wheat producers as blatantly protectionist, the President called his decision ”our most dramatic initiative to expand farm exports.”
The subsidies were championed by Dole and other farm-state Republicans. But the decision drew angry criticism from Secretary of State George Shultz, who questioned the wisdom of making wheat available at a lower price for the Soviets than it is for ”American housewives.”
”For some, this is difficult to understand–after all, the Soviets are our adversaries,” Reagan said. ”The truth is, I didn`t make this decision for them, I made it for the American farmer and all Americans. Because if that grain isn`t sold to the Soviets, most of it will be stockpiled, costing the taxpayers and depressing grain prices here at home.”
Reagan, dismissing criticism of his administration`s handling of the nation`s farm crisis, asserted that federal farm support programs this year total more than the amount the Carter administration spent in its entire four years in office.
”Make no mistake: Ultimately we want to get government out of farming so that our farmers can achieve complete economic independence,” Reagan said.
”But right now while some of our farmers are hurting, government has a responsibility to lend a hand, especially since government-imposed embargoes and inflation did so much of the damage in the first place.”
Reagan was greeted at Capital Airport by Gov. James Thompson, Mrs. Thompson, Lt. Gov. George Ryan, State Sen. John Davidson (R., Springfield) and Springfield Mayor Michael Houston, the Republican candidate for state treasurer.
Missing from the festivities was State Rep. Judy Koehler (R., Henry), the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, although Reagan is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for her in Chicago later in the day.
At the state fair, Reagan visited the Junior Livestock Competition, awarding blue ribbons to owners of champion steers, pigs, sheep and poultry.
”I look out on you 4H-ers and Future Farmers of America, I see your proud faces, I think of all you know about farming and livestock, I look in particular at your prize cattle, and I think to myself, I sure could use these folks out on the ranch,” Reagan said.
The President reminisced about growing up in Downstate Dixon, at one point telling his young audience about his times at Eureka College during the Great Depression.
”One of the better jobs I`ve ever had was during the school year,” he said. ”I washed dishes–in the girl`s dormitory.”
In another politically minded gesture, the President later moved over to shake hands and pose for pictures with a group of Illinois farmers who donated desperately needed grain to farmers in South Carolina, Georgia and elsewhere throughout the parched Southeast.
”That`s the way America responds in a crisis–by sticking together and . . . Illinois is where the whole thing started,” Reagan said.
”Times may be hard, but American farms–family farms–will pull through,” he said. ”Why? Because of growing markets . . . And because, my friends, American farmers are the most innovative, productive, hard-working and efficient on earth.”
