It sounds to me as if farm subsidies will be toast given these massive expenses.

The question then would be: will effective new deal style price floors and supply management come back to replace subsidies. If they did that would be great, just what we need, if not, that would be a disaster. Today the best proposals look to international implementation, especially of supply management, so that farmers everywhere make a profit, both domestically and in world markets. In the U.S. the National family Farm Coalition (and NFFC members) is the leader on these issues, while mainstream media and most progressives are on the wrong side of the issue.

Price floors were ended under the Republican Freedom to Farm Act (1996). They were lowered below 100% of parity starting in 1953 and continuing on a downward trend until 1995. Key Democrats (including liberal Wellstone) switched over to the no price floors side in 2002 when Iowa Senator Tom Harkin became chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee (and also, now, most progressive groups). Democratic proposals for 2002 and 2008 were far worse than Nixon/Butz in the 1970s and Reagan/Block in the 1980s. We've moved so far, with no price floors for 3 farm bills in a row, that last time around these policies were hardly mentioned in government farm bill prep documents, (ie. Congressional Research Service's, “Previewing a 2007 Farm Bill,”) and progressives bailed out as well, not knowing/hearing/advocating for antidumping/price floor policies. For example, Bread for the World, Network, and others linked the CRS report which hardly mentioned these issues

Without subsidies the stage would be set for a U.S. farm Great Depression, like poor countries have had under our dumping (ie. 1981-2006, see USDA-ERS U.S cost of production data, or IATP dumping data, 1990-2003 or back to 1986, "U.S. Dumping on World Agricultural Markets"). The 1920s farm depression was a huge factor in the 1930s Great depression, and New Deal price floors were a huge factor in ending it. Today, however, as Bush era debts have risen, US farmers have had a major price spike (ie fall 2006-fall 2008), hugely stimulating our economy and lessening the economic disaster. U.S. farmers are still spending to rebuild long neglected infrastructure (facilities, machinery). That's helping us all, and losing it would be a huge problem (corn prices have already fallen to less than half of the peak, and below current full costs of production). To lose the wealth building factor of profitable farming (price spike) and turn it into a huge depression causing factor (no price floors combined with bad market) would make things significantly worse. It is said that price floor programs made $13 million 1933-1952, instead of costing billions, like subsidy compensations for below cost farm prices do. Surely we can no longer afford farm "safety nets," having the government shell out billions every year to compensate for below cost of production prices like we had 1981-2006 (for a major group of program crops overall, except 1996 when there was no loss). We can't afford to just pay for (most of) the market losses for (free market failures), as we've done under conservative policy for decades. OPEC tends to want to export at a profit. We have even bigger export market shares (ie corn, soybeans) and should no longer choose to lose money on export sales (nor should we ever have done so).

For historical perspective see Crisis by Design by Mark Ritchie and Legacy of Crisis by George Naylor et al, both online.

Where could Obama find such a Secretary of Agriculture, when Democrats have bailed out for 3 farm bills in a row. The Democratic Harkin/Gephardt farm bill of the 1980s and 1990s is what we need (NFFC's Food from Family Farms Act). How about Berkely Bedell (former D-Ia Rep) for Secretary of Agriculture.

It's bad enough that these so called bail-outs are actually rewarding failure and bad behavior but giving these thieves more money and expecting a different outcome fits Einsteins definition of Insanity. In the end all this is about is destroying any possibility of meaningful change in the future out of the Gov't by burying the next 2 Presidents under a Mt. of debt for the awful and ruinous lack of governing under this criminal regime. On top of all of this fiasco, I doubt we'll be seeing any of these crooks going to jail any time soon either. The bottom line is the crooks and their enablers ( the BV$H regime) will laugh all the way too some offshore bank with our money and we will be in essence be paying for the sins of these folks and their President, twice.

This is all much ado about nothing. The bailouts are necessary to stabilize the economy. Obama understands that. At least CD didn't see fit to run this tripe where more people might read it.