Those who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.

Apparently, lawmakers in Washington either haven’t learned the lessons of FDR, or else they think that the lesson is that forcing the agricultural industry to raise prices during a recession is a good thing.

During the Great Depression, FDR formed the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. The purpose of the AAA was to use federal funds to pay farmers to reduce crop areas, destroy cotton crops, and “reduce excess livestock” (6 million piglets and 220,000 pregnant cows) in an effort to raise prices. That’s right: people were starving and standing in bread lines, and FDR thought it was a good idea to destroy food and keep prices high.

Now, over 75 years after the creation of the AAA, lawmakers have again decided to use federal funding to “adjust” the size of the herd to keep prices high. According to the Waterown Daily Times:

Lawmakers are looking for ways to use the forthcoming stimulus bill to help dairy farmers, and the number one priority is to dampen milk supplies and prop up prices. Translation: reduce the nations dairy herd.

Will ne’er-do-well lawmakers only stop meddling in the free markets when there are no free markets left to meddle in? Will they only stop taking away out liberties when we have no liberties left to take away?

If you know the lessons of history, you know the answer to both of those questions.