Dairy subsidies are the biggest scam on earth. Around here, the dairy guys are rolling in money, get paid to produce and paid to not produce. They buy up all the hay, that they get a subsidy for, and meanwhile, all the rest of us livestock producers are forced to pay inflated prices for feed.

And processed milk is one of the worst things you can drink. Let the price sky-rocket.

If current milk price support legislation expires at year end, the article states that an unexplained 1949 law will double milk prices. If common sense prevailed, Congress would permit the free market determine the cost of milk by rescinding the 1949 law and allowing current subsidies to expire. What do do free markets mean if a powerful lobby group can dictate what consumers/taxpayers have to pay in bribes? This applies to dairy farmers as it does to the wasteful solar and wind industries that want our electricity rates to soar in order to make "sustainable" energy appear efficient.

Interviewed by phone at her Hawaiian vacation home, Michelle Antoinette said, "Let them drink cocoanut milk."

NO. Let the price rise and let the market dictate where it levels off. NO to any and all subsidies. Just say no.

Another example of the only thing having immortality is a government program.

Just leave the price of soy milk alone. Our house went from whole milk to 2% then to 1% and finally to soy milk. Should have done it years sooner.

fiscal cliff- root cause: politicians
milk cliff- root cause: politicians
housing collapse- root cause: politicians
student loan future collapse- root cause: politicans.
Are you starting to see a pattern? Cause a problem and then be responsible for fixing it. Rinse and repeat. Job security industry at it´s best.

This is what happens when you repeal the law of supply and demand and replace it with tax money spent to prop up the price of goods. Only one little bit doesn´t make sense. That 1949 rule was written when gasoline was 25 cents a gallon. I don´t remember 1949 all that well, but I´ll bet money the price of milk was NOT much more than the price of gasoline in 1949, and that formula shouldn´t push the price of milk above the price of gasoline now. If the price of milk gets to $7/gal, I´ll buy some cows.

On January 20, 2017...Obama´s last day in office (unless he chokes on himself before then), we will be looking back at November 5, 2012 as the good old days. What have the American people done?

It´s only the beginning! Bread, meat next!

Start offering each and every bill separately.

Vote on each of them without any other pork added.

Get people on record.

Stop using this as leverage for some other vote on someone elses pork-laden bill.

Use this fiscal cliff to start cleaning house of stupid bills, taxes, etc...

Milk product pricing has been a political football going back to the days of the New Deal. There were "Milk Boards" set up that supposedly controlled the production of milk, to prevent the underpricing of the products within designated areas of responsibility. The base price for ALL milk products was set according to the costs of production, and when the "market price" could not support this base price, the government was supposed to step in and buy up the surplus, which was then stored in huge warehouses. Dairy product prices were kept artificially high, destroying much of the wide-spread demand, and consequently driving hundreds of thousands of dairy producers and processing plants out of existence.

Well, surprise. Margarine largely replaced butter, cheese became a "giveaway" commodity for folks on welfare, and various byproducts, whey, for instance (which price was NOT controlled) became a major ingredient in candies and snack foods. Fluid milk sales crashed and have never recovered.

This just puts icing on one of the rottenest cakes ever served up.

We need to eliminate laws that affect the free market if the government doesn´t intervene. Its incredibly silly for government to be committed to buy milk according to prices set in 1940. Just like it is insane to modify the prices we pay doctors for services because of a budget gimmick passed by Bill Clinton. Yet every year we adjust the prices upward or the doctors will stop seeing Medicare patients.

I have so many farmer friends and at one time, would have argued vociferously with #1. THEN we lived in Tillamook County, OR for seven years. We learned the dirty little secrets of the dairy industry from those who live it. Threatening headlines like this? Yawn cuz we get this every time to push Congress... Milk prices are going to DOUBLE anyway.

Don´t really understand the "human interest" slant to this story. Anybody who is adversely affected in a major way by rising milk prices already get a huge Food Stamp allowance every month. They don´t even look at prices. It´s all free.

We shop at Walmart at least twice/month. I can´t afford most of the stuff in candy aisle. Have to be on food stamps to buy that stuff.

Elsie the Cow wanted for questioning.

We should not interfere with the free markets for anything. Just leave thing alone without subsidies. People will figure things out. If milk is too expensive, people will not buy it. If they do not buy it, the demand will lessen and so will the price. We should not subsidize anything.

No the story line is all wrong

It should be "you bought the cow, now drink the milk"

What the heck? You tellin me we ain´t got no mo cows that can make milk. Did they join the cow union and go on strike too???

Can Obama mike a camel, we gotta feed our yougins.

Gabula

All commodities are going to be out of reach for the average person soon. We are on our way to being a third world country. Move over South Africa.

All mega holstein farmers rake in millions from taxpayer subsidies, hire all illegals, and make mega-incomes. They pay no sales taxes on anything (exempt), and pay 1/10th the property taxes as a regular person. They buy $65,000 fully loaded trucks with no add-on taxes on the premise it´s for the farm but don´t use it for same. They pay no taxes on fuel. I don´t feel sorry for any of them.