“I’ve heard from many a farmer that the direct subsidies are their margin”
Do you ever ask them why they get their margin for free when the rest of us have to earn it? If so, do they ever respond with anything but some variance on “Farmers are special”?
Nope. One of my tenant farmers for my little plot farms thousands of acres with his family. One day we were out looking at some land and earlier in the day he heard a rumor about the subsidies being cut and he went on a rant. The man has never voted D in his life but he was all for cutting the Iraq war completely so the government could spend the money on farmers. So I concluded that subsidy means alot to his operation.