There's No Farm Bill Like No Farm Bill

This letter of mine is published in today’s edition of the Washington Times:

No farm bill is best farm bill

Among the jobs of
any secretary of agriculture is to portray the administration as smart,
fiscally responsible and in awe of farmers’ goodness and wisdom.
Secretary Chuck Conner tries to do his duty in "Farmers deserve better"
(Commentary, yesterday).

But those of us who don’t work for
the Beltway circus should ignore the corny debate over the relative
merits of the Bush administration’s offensively expensive farm bill
against those of Congress’ obscenely expensive alternative bill.

We
should instead tell our "leaders" that the best farm bill is no farm
bill. There is no sound reason for government to subsidize farmers or
to protect them from foreign competitors. Any farmer or rancher too
incompetent to produce food that consumers pay for voluntarily should
find other employment.