Clinton Vows to Protect Farm Programs : Agriculture: President comes out against GOP’s proposed subsidy cuts during trip to politically important Iowa.

President Clinton, seeking to shore up his standing in the politically vital Midwest, staked out a firm position Tuesday against Republican proposals to eliminate federal subsidies to farmers.

“I don’t believe we ought to destroy the farm-support program if we want to keep the family farm,” Clinton said as he opened a conference on rural issues at Iowa State University.

The President, signaling for the first time his position on the proposed 1995 farm bill, said he is willing to modify the program, which pays farmers an estimated $11 billion a year to protect them against sudden drops in crop prices.

“But our first rule should be: Do no harm,” he said, promising farmers that he will protect their interests.

Clinton has already suggested cutting farm spending by $1.5 billion over five years. But several leading Republicans--including Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.)--have proposed much deeper cuts, including an end to the price-support program.

Clinton’s defense of the price-support system--which has the backing of some Republicans--reflects two factors: his philosophical fondness for government programs to promote economic activity and the importance of the rural Midwest in next year’s presidential election.

Clinton’s visit to Iowa--where February caucus meetings will provide the first test of the 1996 presidential campaign--had an implicit but clear political purpose: to tell Iowans and other Midwesterners that their President is thinking of them.

“Republican presidential hopefuls have been tripping through the state on a regular basis,” Iowa Democratic Chairman Mike Peterson said. “People need to be reminded that there is a Democratic alternative. And we need to be talking about the Clinton record and the Clinton vision.”

Clinton sought both to reassure farmers of his commitment to their needs and to make the case to urban and suburban audiences that the health of rural economies affects them as well. While GOP budget-cutters have focused on the savings they can achieve by slashing farm programs, Clinton argued that rural communities must have access to well-paying jobs, health care and educational opportunities, or family farmers will quit the land and leave production to large agribusiness firms.

Many Republicans, including Armey, have argued that ending farm subsidies could not only reduce the federal budget deficit but force a restructuring of the agricultural community that would bring lower costs to consumers.

Clinton, by contrast, made clear that he will use his power to support middle-income farmers and discourage further concentration of the nation’s farm production. Echoing proposals that are gaining ground on Capitol Hill, newly confirmed Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman suggested that the Administration would exclude the wealthiest farmers from receiving certain farm subsidies.

The President’s comments won hearty praise from an audience of farmers, bankers and scholars largely dependent on farm programs, while GOP proposals drew suspicion and hostility.

Lois Wales, a Texas producer of corn, cotton, wheat and beef, warned Clinton that if the 1995 farm bill now being debated in Congress fails to offer targeted support to family farmers, multinational corporations with “many friends” on Capitol Hill will till the heartland.

“It has been far too long since we’ve had a President show this interest in rural America,” Wales said.

Clinton proclaimed his fealty to the virtues of farms and small towns repeatedly in his four public appearances over little more than a day in Iowa.

Clinton won Iowa by a narrow margin in 1992’s three-way presidential race, and Peterson said the President’s standing in polls here is several points higher than his nationwide popularity rating.

“It’s too early to say how 1996 will go,” he said. “I would not be willing to count (Clinton) out, even against a Midwestern candidate like (Kansas Sen. Bob) Dole.”

Peterson said he won a promise from White House political aides to send members of Clinton’s Cabinet to Iowa every month from now until the February caucuses.

Without a Democratic challenger to the President, the party’s caucuses will have none of the national drama of the Republican meetings--to the vast relief of Clinton aides.