Robin Hood was famous for robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, but what do you call a rogue operation that robs from everybody to give to the rich? How about calling it the U.S. Department of Agriculture—a bloated and wasteful bureaucracy that pays out a crushing $18 billion a year in subsidies to agribusiness. As the Wall Street Journal reports, much of this money goes to well-to-do people who farm as a hobby, and earn non-farm income above $200,000, but still get a whopping $400 million in taxpayer subsidies.

When people wonder if we can cut federal spending, they should look at the USDA—a massive scam that employs more than 110,000 people at a cost to the taxpayer of $95 billion a year. Believe it or not, even a modest Bush administration plan to put a cap on subsidies to rich non-farmers has run into furious bi-partisan opposition.