Milk

[shnozzola]

The minimum price for milk, called the "support price," is set in the farm bill. The farm bill is set to expire on Jan. 1, and here's the catch: If that happens, the minimum price reverts to the price set more than 60 years ago in the Agricultural Act of 1949. That price is a parity price, which means it was calculated based on how much it cost farmers to make milk during the "golden age of agriculture" 1910 -1914. Things have changed a lot since then, and costs for farmers today (equipment, labor, feed, cows) are radically different.

The parity price set in 1949 is $39.53 per 100 pounds — right now, farmers are getting half that, $19.50 per 100 pounds of milk.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/12/27/168147765/understanding-the-milk-cliff

But Conservative Charles Krauthammer sees the milk price and the farm bill and farm supports differently -

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: "I do think if we went over the milk cliff it would actually be a good idea. [If] people actually saw the milk price double, it would be less abstract than watching a debt clock. They would finally understand that we have the insane laws, that acquire barnacles over the decades. And the farm laws are the worst. They are all kind of pressure, special interest favors, pay offs which make no economic sense. I'd like to wipe them out and start all over again, and it would be good if the law expired. People would actually be awakened to how insane our system is and how much we really need tax reform. It wouldn't be an abstraction, it would be real."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/12/27/krauthammer_going_off_milk_cliff_would_actually_be_a_good_idea.html

[Nick]

I wonder how FOX contributors would feel about ending the tax breaks for big oil?  Oh, we can't do that...but f*ck the farmers.

That farm bill has been passed every time since the 40s.  We are the bread basket of the world.  Our farm subsidies help us compete with other countries around the world.  We could not without gov help.  That is the way the system works.  But not with this congress.  They won't be satisfied until we are buying apples off street corners and back at soup kitchens like in the 30s.

[kitten]

when we say fuk farmers, we're really saying fuk us...
i need happy farmers making me yummy food..