Senate Should Subsidize Crops that Treat Bloat And Belly Ache

Anytime you put $32 billion on the table, things are bound to get ugly.

When you're putting it on the table, divvying it up between the rich and the richer, things are really ugly -- even if some of it falls off and ends up doing some good.

That's one way to think about the farm bill, anyway. The Senate is sitting around the table, arguing about who gets what and how much, as the San Francisco details.

There are some good features of this latest exercise in throwing money at farmers. Specialty crops, like fruit orchards, organic farms, and local farmers markets all could benefit in ways they never have before. But a lot of money -- it looks like -- will go to the same place it always has, bloated and rich Midwestern corn, wheat and soy bean farms.

One wonders if subsidizing any worthwhile farm is worth the baggage.

This year, Congress is also considering giving dead people some money not to farm. The sad thing? It doesn't turn the stomachs of all our Senators.

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