Ahhh, the sweet sound of disent:)

As acting president Obama is having trouble keeping democrats on his track.

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama is facing misgivings about his policy agenda from inside his own party, with prominent Democrats objecting to parts of his taxation and spending plans and questioning the White House push to do so much so fast.

Obama's strategy is to advance on all fronts. Buoyed by favorable poll numbers, he is moving to jolt the economy with a massive stimulus package, revamp the healthcare system and push the nation toward renewable energy sources.

Obama's party is peppered with legislators from conservative districts who are wary of a budget proposal that includes tax increases and deficit spending, even if tax cuts are also part of the plan. Already, Republicans have targeted some Democrats with advertisements pressuring them to reject Obama's plans.

"The hardest part of this is Congress' digestive tract, which is rather challenged. We're not used to this," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice).

Fissures among Democratic lawmakers have already emerged. Rep. Eric Massa is a Democrat in a rural New York district where dairy farms and wineries have a major presence. The budget blueprint that Obama released last month would phase out subsidies to farmers whose sales exceed $500,000 a year.

Massa said the cutoff would apply to "every single farm" in his district.

"We're going to have a hard time passing this budget as it is," even without ending the payments, he added.

"Frankly, I'm not about to abandon America's farms in favor of America's boardrooms. I won't be part of that plan," he said.

Rep. Harry Mitchell is a Democrat who represents a predominantly Republican district in suburban Phoenix. Mitchell said he could not support provisions in Obama's budget that would raise the capital gains tax for couples earning more than $250,000 and halt the repeal of the estate tax in 2010.

Mitchell said that if the White House wouldn't relent, he would need to think carefully about whether to vote for the president's budget.

Describing his constituents, Mitchell said: "They're very cautious about taxes, and they're fiscally conservative."

Harman worries about the growing national debt. Obama's budget projects a $1.75-trillion deficit for 2009.

"My concern is that my three grandchildren under 3 years old are paying for this, and I don't like that," she said.

Republican operatives hope to encourage defections from Obama's Democratic coalition, zeroing in on potentially vulnerable Democrats from more conservative districts. Last month, they aired radio ads targeting 30 Democrats who voted for Obama's stimulus plan, including Massa.

I noticed that the farm subsidies were cut for sales over 1/2 million. Initially this doesn't sound too bad. But how about we make it for farms whose profits exceed 1/2 million. I look at this like a ray of hope. Though I figure that acting president Obama will just lower his program while the earmarks go up and further raise the cost of all of this to us, the tax payers.