Democrats Attack : President Seen as Vulnerable on Farm Issue

In Democratic Rep. Sander M. Levin’s suburban Detroit district, the closest thing to a farm crop may be potted geraniums.

Levin’s city background has not narrowed his political instincts, however, which is why he spent four days touring the credit-starved farmlands of the Midwest and returned to Capitol Hill this week to help lead the charge for farm relief.

Levin and fellow Democrats in both the House and Senate have taken the lead in the present battle. And they have done so from a combination of motives: concern for the farmers’ plight and the chance to gain a partisan advantage over the Reagan Administration and the Republican Party.

Reviving Morale

But, also, Levin sees the farm issue as a longer-range opportunity to revive his party’s hither-to slumping morale and shape a broad Democratic strategy for the long and arduous struggle over the nation’s No. 1 domestic political issue--the federal budget.

“This could be the first chink in Reagan’s armor,” Levin said. “The farm issue is the first issue out of the box, and it raises the larger question of the role of government in society.” Because it is that kind of fundamental problem, Levin believes the farm issue can help the Democrats find a “measured” response to President Reagan’s proposed budget cuts, including extensive cutbacks in farm subsidies.

New Round of Cuts

“I’m in favor of the law of the marketplace but I’m against the law of the jungle,” he said, enunciating a distinction he thinks Democrats can use to good advantage in opposing Reagan’s sweeping new round of domestic spending cuts.

Even Administration strategists acknowledge that the present skirmish over farm policy could have important implications for their whole budget program. In discussing strategy on the Administration farm program and its implications for other areas, one Administration official said:

“Politically, it is crucial to get the legislators from the farm and rural areas to accept some pain and go along with significant cutbacks.

“Once that happens, we could count on them to insist that urban congressmen also accept cuts in their pet programs. But, if we can’t get past that first stumbling block, the whole package will be a lot harder to implement.”

Balking at Pain

And, with the farmers already balking at accepting pain in the agriculture credit crisis, urban Democrats are taking advantage of the issue to underline arguments of their own. “For the urban people, it gives them an opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve been saying . . . all along” about the alleged unfairness of the Reagan Administration, a Democratic aide said.

For instance, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy issued a statement supporting the easing of farm credit in which he declared that “to sacrifice the American farm on the altar of an abstract economic theology is irresponsible and shortsighted.”

And Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, who accompanied his brother, Sander, on the farm country tour, predicted: “The smoke from this prairie fire will reach the industrial areas of our country.”

Short-Term Success

Whatever the future holds, the Democrats’ decision to seize the initiative on the farm issue so far has yielded at least some short-term success for a party that had grown accustomed of late to frustration and defeat.

In a few swift days, Senate Democrats--by tying up Edwin Meese III’s nomination for attorney general, were able to pressure Senate Republican leader Robert J. Dole of Kansas for farm credit concessions. And House Democrats pushed legislation through the Agriculture Committee that would not only make substantially more credit available to farmers but give them swifter access to it.

Some Republicans grumble that the Democrats overplayed their hand. “One of the dumbest attempts to milk the farm issue for political capital that I’ve seen,” said GOP Sen. Mark Andrews of North Dakota.

But others acknowledge, as one Republican House staff member put it: “It’s a hot issue, and right now they have scored some points.”

Additional Struggles

The question remains as to what extent the lessons of the farm credit fight can be applied to coming struggles over such proposed Reagan spending cuts as farm price supports, college student loans and grants and revenue sharing.

Still leery of being tagged with the “big spender” label, which has hurt them so much at the ballot box, and of appearing to evade responsibility for dealing with the huge budget defict, Democrats were cautious in discussing their strategy. Rep. Levin, who is one of the leaders of the bipartisan coalition of House members from Northeastern and Midwestern states supporting the farmers’ cause, said: “Our approach has been to avoid the extremes of the past.”

And, although pleased with their gains, Democrats have sought to play down the cost of the farm credit proposals. The expense would be minimal unless large numbers of farmers defaulted on their federally guaranteed loans, they said, even though an Office of Management and Budget spokesman estimated the cost of the House proposal at $4 billion to $5 billion over the next 18 months.

Some Democrats partly attributed their success to Administration blundering. “Reagan was guilty of fundamentally misreading a multistate constituency,” said one aide to the House Democratic leadership.

Harbinger of Opportunity

But others agreed with Levin’s assessment that the farm battle might be a harbinger of broader opportunities. “It suggests to me that, whenever there’s an opportunity to make political hay, we should take it,” said Richard Conlon, executive director of the Democratic Study Group, which provides background information on issues for the party’s House members.

“You need a situation where there’s a good case and a good constituency,” he said.

One likely opportunity, involving the same agrarian constituency as in the farm credit fight, will be the debate over Administration proposals to phase out most of the existing farm price support program over the next four years. Democratic Rep. Thomas A. Daschle of South Dakota, author of the farm credit proposal approved by the House Agriculture Committee, thinks the success in the farm credit struggle will help in the effort to modify the Administration’s overall agricultural agenda.

“We’ve set the stage for a greater debate on farm policy and undermined the Administration’s credibility,” he said. “We demonstrated that they are far more willing to negotiate under pressure than most people thought.”