Farm bill unfair to the little guy

WASHINGTON – For 30 years Sen. Richard Lugar has politely and cerebrally made the case that opening the spigot of taxpayer money and thoroughly watering the U.S. agriculture industry is misguided.

Politeness hasn't worked. We still have a program that is neither fair nor logical, and Congress is about to obligate taxpayers for five more years of this multibillion-dollar idiocy.

It subsidizes some, but not all, crops.

It makes payments to the owners of farmland – not necessarily the farmers – which means rich city dwellers and Purdue University collect hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It makes payments on the basis of who got money in the past, not which farms or crops were devastated by nasty weather or lousy market prices.