Increasingly on the fringe

I am afraid I am increasingly out of touch and perhaps even wrong when it comes to my perceptions regarding the role of the Federal Government. In my travels I often listen to the local radio stations, usually news talk or sports talk. I was getting in some windshield time earlier in the week and the hourly news included a farm report. That is not unusual in this part of the country. A great deal of the report focused on the next iteration of a Farm Bill, but more importantly, on the efforts to pass an emergency "drought relief" for farmers.

Farming is a business. Why are we, as taxpayers, bailing out the farmers*? Isn't drought one of the reasons for Federal crop Insurance programs? Does the government step in and give money to other businesses in times of natural woe?  Was there a program to help struggling snow plow operators this past winter when a capricious Mother Nature refused to send snow our way? Do we get emergency "rain relief" to pool salesmen and water park operators when we have a wet cool summer? I am sure farmers across the nation will point out that farms produce our food and without a viable farm system starvation faces the nation.

Bad crops equal higher prices. The law of supply and demand even applies to the mercantile exchange. The CBOE pays more for corn futures when the yield outlook is low. If the taxpayers are expected to pay the farmers for the ill effects of nature, shouldn't the farmers pay more to the taxpayers in times of abundance?

Better yet, shouldn't the government stay out of the farming business altogether?


* I won't even get into subsidies and pay not to plant programs.