Richard Holbrooke and USAID administrator Rajiv Shah are speaking about corruption in Afghanistan before a House appropriations subcommittee this morning. In asking about efforts to deal with the drug trade and the significant role of the poppy crop in contemporary Afghanistan, Republican representative Jerry Lewis led into his question with this fascinating line:
"Perhaps the most lasting example of socialism in the world exists between the U.S. government and agriculture."
This is simultaneously true and particularly surprising to hear from any American politician. Even among ostensibly small-government Republicans, the idea that our subsidies in support of agriculture might be anything as theoretically un-American as "socialism" is treated as an obscenity. Jerry Lewis certainly is a small-government Republican, at least as expressed on his web site, and it's actually pretty refreshing to hear him speak so clearly to the fact that our government does, indeed, run some socialist programs that everyone likes, and that work. His actual question amounted to "We run crop subsidies like crazy here. Why aren't we just buying all the poppies in Afghanistan?"
That's my paraphrase, mind you. He didn't literally say those words.
Jerry Lewis represents the 41st Congressional district, which is more or less the eastern half of San Bernardino county in California. It's not one of California's major agriculture regions, which partially explains why representative Lewis feels like he can get away with doing things like calling agricultural subsidies "socialism."