I read 'An American Life, Ronald Reagan - the autobiography.' I thought that there would be no better way to learn about small government, free market conservatism than from the Gipper himself. I was shocked to read this on pages 344 and 345. "Through it all, the farmers who suffered most were those who had been encouraged to overproduce by the billions of dollars available in federal subsidies." and, "In the farm crisis of the mid-eighties we gave farmers more billions than any administration in history. I believed the government had an obligation to help bail out the victims, then to work to return farming to the free market."