Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com

Published - Friday, June 29, 2007

Editorial: Congressman's attack exposes contradictions of farm-state conservatism

Under the heading of “Legislative Issues” on Oklahoma Republican Congressman Frank Lucas’ website, the link to “lower taxes” sits immediately above the link to “agriculture assistance.”

It’s a contradiction the Congressman barely makes an effort to hide.

Lucas recently unleashed his contradictory brand of farm-state conservatism against Wisconsin Democratic Congressman Ron Kind, whose 3rd District includes Tomah, over the issue of farm subsidies.

Kind’s transgression? He and Arizona Republican Congressman Jeff Flake want to significantly reduce the bloated $210 billion farm-subsidy program by implementing “revenue management accounts.” They would work like individual retirement accounts and could be tapped by farmers when their revenues fall below a fixed historical average, or for certain rural investment projects. The bill would save $20 billion over the next five years and still leave more money for conservation, renewable energy and food assistance to the poor.

Lucas will have none of it.

“This is a threat to everyone, the entire world,” he said. “I’m frightened as to what Mr. Kind can do to rural America on the floor of the U.S. House.”

Lucas is wrong. The Kind-Flake approach is only a threat to the small percentage of farms that reap most of the subsidies. Two-thirds of payments go to 10 percent of the recipients, some of whom aren’t “farmers” in the traditional sense (NBA basketball star Scottie Pippen has reaped $289,000; talk show host David Letterman got $8,000). Only a few select crops are subsidized, and the vast majority of farms receive nothing at all.

Lucas’ attack on Kind is both hyperbolic and revealing. In almost every other context, Lucas and farm-state conservatives preach the virtues of the free market (health care, for example) and waive the bloody shirt of higher taxes. But in agriculture, they defend a command-and-control system of socialized agriculture that’s far more encompassing than even the staunchest liberals would apply to health care. It’s tax-and-spend, but the recipients aren’t poor people who can’t afford health insurance or college tuition; they’re rich people with vast land holdings.

The farm subsidy program is the least defensible thing the federal government does, and many Congressman know it. Said Flake: “It's plumb embarrassing to try to justify. Sometimes shame and ridicule works.”

Let’s hope the bill crafted by Kind and Flake reaches the House floor and see if people like Frank Lucas have any shame at all.

All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.