They say it can't be done. The budget deficit is soaring. Congress will never have the discipline to control spending. Social Security reform with personal saving accounts is a pipe dream.

Can President Bush win support for his ambitious agenda? At this point we don't know, but I wouldn't bet against him. He has always been underestimated. I recall President Reagan pushing through unbelievable tax cuts in 1981. The top tax rate when President Reagan was elected was 70 percent. After that first…

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The American fanners and ranchers just wrapped up the best year we have ever had if we rely on the net farm income figure of 73.7B dollars. That does not mean that we are on easy street. There are a lot of land mines out there that can bring us back to earth pretty fast.

Let's review some of the challenges that we face. Since we rely so heavily on exports, let's look there first. Another mad cow was found in Canada. That makes two in two weeks. I know that beef in U. S. and Canada is perfectly…

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We're just beginning to see what I expect to be a flood of articles about government farm subsidies. In my hand I have the NY Times, December 26 (the day after Christmas). On page one is a long article critical of fam1 subsidies. "Despite the fact that farm income has doubled in 2 years, federal subsidies have also gone up nearly 40 percent over the same period." that's true, all true. Of course, the year of comparison is 2002, a terrible year for farmers. That year net farm income was a dismal…

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