December 12, 2007 3:37PM 

# I Hope You Like Asparagus 

By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) 

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Further to Dan’s [post](https://www.cato.org/2007/12/12/our-depressingly-bipartisan-farm-policy/) today, some more depressing news today on the farm bill process. A couple of amendments that would have trimmed some excess fat also failed.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H) has proposed a number of amendments to the farm bill. The two that failed today were designed to strike a couple of almost comic provisions of the farm bill that emerged from the Senate Agriculture Committee. The first, to strike language that establishes a “Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network,” a mental health program for farmers, failed 37–58. The other, to strike a new program to provide subsidies for asparagus producers, failed 39–56. (Roll call records are not yet available)

Now, I am willing to concede that farming might be stressful at times (although Mencken would [disagree](http://www.bizbag.com/mencken/menkfarm.htm)). I certainly wouldn’t like getting out of bed at dawn to milk cows. And I am sure it is a tough business, rearing asparagus. But I once saw a stockbroker outside the NYSE smoking two cigarettes at once, and looking decidedly harried. And I bet he earned less than some farmers. Where’s his taxpayer-funded “stress assistance network?”

This is a further sign of the truly staggering resistance to reform U.S. agricultural policy. Tom Harkin (D., IA), Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, [said](http://dtnag.com/dtnag/common/link.do?symbolicName=/free/news/template1&vendorReference=cdc37f49-a12b-4710-8d92-f41326abfc58) that the proposed reforms of the Lugar-Lautenberg amendment were “too far too fast.”

*Too fast?* These programs have been with us for over 70 years, Senator.

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[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) 

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