So, the US government charges 93 percent less for cattle grazing than private landowners. We are either getting ripped off, or the ranchers are getting a much needed good deal depending upon your point of view.. Regardless, the ranchers get a huge discount on leasing the federal land, all for the benefit of their own private business. We also subsidize them through handouts to help with drought relief, low-interest agricultural loans, emergency livestock feed programs, emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands....we even pay for many, if not most, of their fences, and the government pays to protect their livestock. These folks get to take out loans based on the "value" of their grazing permits, not off their own credit or property. My oh my, they sure know when they have been treated badly. A good thing about this siege is that these sad "heros" have helped shine a light on how they are damaging our environment at our tax expense, ruining our lands sacred to others at tax expense, making their living at tax expense, and now they want to bite the hand that feeds them - at our tax expense. Our romanticized notions about cowboys have become a very expensive piece of fiction.
