He attacks both major parties but once again disputes rumors that he'll run for a third party.
Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan proposed a 10-point plan to Monday help farmers and rural Americans by eliminating key taxes and getting tough on trade.
"Not everyone is marching in the great parade of American prosperity," the commentator and columnist told employees of the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines. "The crisis here will endure unless we change our policies," he said.
Low farm prices are getting a lot of attention from presidential candidates these days as they crisscross Iowa looking for caucus votes. Democratic candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley announced trips to Iowa later this week, and both visits are expected to focus largely on rural concerns.
Buchanan said Monday he would:
* Abolish all inheritance and capital-gains taxes on family farms.
* Repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement. He criticized supporters of free trade in both parties. Buchanan said fast-track trade authority to make it easier for a president to negotiate trade deals should not be given to an administration that has a $325 billion merchandise trade deficit.
Buchanan said he would support a policy to cut off commodity imports to the United States "whenever the price of a commodity falls below the cost of production . . . to save our family farms."
* Abolish the International Monetary Fund and "end these taxpayer bailouts of foreign competitors of U.S. farmers."
* Halt the use of food as a weapon. Buchanan would review all existing embargoes.
* Use antitrust laws to prevent mergers of large corporate farming interests that could hurt family farmers.
* Require the disclosure of commodity prices paid to producers so farmers can better judge the marketplace.
* Support ethanol as a way to increase farm income while helping achieve energy independence.
* Rewrite the Endangered Species Act so Congress has to vote on every species that is to be listed.
* Exempt family farms from the Occupational Safety and Health Act and review all federal regulations.
* Protect property rights of farmers. Farmers who have the value of their land reduced by government actions should get better compensation, he said.
Buchanan took aim at some of his Republican opponents on trade issues.
"Those Republicans like Mr. (George W.) Bush and Mr. (Steve) Forbes, who have embraced the Clinton-Gore policy of appeasing China with most favored nation trade privileges, bear equal responsibility for the Iowa farms that today hover on the brink of bankruptcy," Buchanan said.
Buchanan says China should be forced to open its markets to U.S. commodities before it is given most favored trade status.
The Republican candidate urged the Principal employees to attend Saturday's GOP straw poll in Ames, a $25-per-vote fund-raiser for the state GOP. Buchanan, who is making his third bid for the White House, called the straw poll "the most important political event this year."
"We're only going to serve Iowa pork," he said. "We'll give you a free ticket. You can go and vote for me and be out of there by 2 o'clock. Or, you can stay until 7 o'clock and boo all the other candidates that come in."
By attacking both parties in his speech, Buchanan did nothing to discourage talk that he might launch a third-party presidential bid. But he once again told reporters after his address, "I'm running as a Republican."
"My intention is to run and do as well as I can in a very tough straw poll," Buchanan said. "All my campaign has been devoted to seeking the Republican nomination. Every state I've been to I've campaigned as a Republican."
