But Italy thought it had solved the problem in 1987, when Washington agreed to accept subsidies on roughly half the pasta imported from Italy.

It has come down to this: accept insurance-market reform and limited subsidies for low-income Americans, or nothing.

But the Supreme Court has ruled that spending limits are unconstitutional unless they are voluntary, as, for example, they would be if candidates agreed to them as a condition of accepting public subsidies.

Assuming that she accepted public subsidies, she would be bound to a limit for Missouri of $2.6 million - nearly $2 million less than her campaign actually spent.

He quickly became known as a political moderate and pragmatist, eventually even breaking what had earlier been something of a taboo: accepting funding and subsidies from the Israeli government.

Those policies stipulated that retailers who accepted subsidies from music companies for advertising CD's could not promote the items below an agreed price.

Although French hip-hoppers are evolving artistically, a movement from the streets is bound to lose some of its edge the day it accepts subsidies.

By 2000, Washington apple growers, once proudly independent, were accepting government handouts and subsidies, like so many other American farmers.

Mr. Bush is counting on a financial advantage because he did not accept federal subsidies in the primaries and therefore, unlike Mr. Gore, is not subject to spending caps.

We do not accept European loans and subsidies being subject to restrictions imposed by the IMF.