My toddlers have recently been having fun with the phrase “liar, liar, pants on fire.” I’d like to set them loose on the farm bill debate in Congress. 

Take a comment today in a Michigan news source by Rep. Timothy Walberg, a member of the House Agriculture Committee: “We want our food cheap, and we’ve become used to that, and that’s where the farm bill comes in. It guarantees cheap and plentiful food.”

But numerous farm programs raise food prices. I’ll give you three: milk, sugar and related products such as chocolate, and infant formula. And don’t forget about federal ethanol policies, which are pushing up prices for corn and derived products.