Once upon a time long ago there was great outrage when people discovered the government (ASCS) was doing tobacco price support (and marketing quota) programs at the same time the Surgeon General was saying smoking was bad.
After sufficient pontificating on the Hill, legislation was passed which tried to make the tobacco program "no cost"--that is, the costs of the program were borne by the tobacco industry, at least in theory--some dispute over the accounting for administrative functions.
That was a while ago, and the meme about USDA supporting tobacco had dwindled almost to nothing. Dwindled at least until today, when some Senators have discovered that RMA/FCIC subsidizes crop insurance for tobacco and are hoping to amend the farm bill to prohibit that.
All cynicism aside, I can't disagree with them. When pot is legalized, I would firmly oppose offering crop insurance for it.
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