How Tom Cotton got along thanks to government money

Gene Lyons, Arkansas Times - In TV commercials and public statements, [Tom] Cotton depicts himself as the dutiful son of a "cattle rancher" who taught him farmers can't spend money they don't have.

It's true that Cotton's father ran cattle on his place near Dardanelle. However, it's also a fact that Len Cotton retired as district supervisor of the Arkansas Health Department after a 37-year career. A public-spirited citizen, the senior Cotton also served on the Arkansas Veterans Commission, the Tri-County Regional Water Board, etc.

The candidate's mother Avis taught in Dardanelle public schools for 40 years, retiring in 2012 as principal of the district's middle school. Career government bureaucrats, both. And more power to them.

So I'm guessing Len Cotton raises cattle for the same reasons I do: because it's an absorbing hobby with considerable tax advantages.

Meanwhile, the thing about the Farm Bill that urban liberals like Jonathan Chait don't get, and that a poser like Cotton's being disingenuous about, is this that it's damn near impossible to farm without risking money you don't have.

Farmers who have to pay for seeds, fertilizer, diesel fuel to pump water, to buy and maintain tractors and combines often more costly than the land. Farmers who borrow every spring in the hope of turning a profit in the fall. They also risk losing the entire crop to pests, floods, drought, tornadoes, cheap soybeans from Brazil, etc. If there's fraud and waste, cut it out. But it's in the national interest to keep agriculture strong.

But let's head back to town, shall we? One of the fastest growing GOP strongholds in Arkansas is the college town of Conway, just across the Arkansas River from here. Tom Cotton's sure to do well there.

Why does Conway prosper? Basically, government funding. Located along Interstate 40, it's the home of the University of Central Arkansas, a growing state school. It's got a brand-new, federally funded airport, two private colleges supported by state scholarships funded by the Arkansas Lottery, an excellent hospital (Medicare, Medicaid), etc.

The city's biggest private employers are Internet-oriented Acxiom and Hewlett Packard. (Pentagon researchers, of course, created the Internet.) Furthermore, everybody Conway receives electricity, water, sewage, cable TV, Internet and telephone service from the Conway Corporation — a city-owned co-op begun in the 1920s. It's as efficient an example of municipal socialism as you'll find this side of Copenhagen, Denmark.

All successful modern economies are mixed economies.

Any politician who tells you differently is not your friend.