Sometimes simple weapons are all you need. David used a slingshot. And, more recently, another David used the truth.

The more recent David is a West Texas wheat farmer, David Cleavinger, who took on the high-powered, special interest pedaling, cash-rich CATO Institute in a live TV cable debate over the merits of U.S. farm policy.

Cleavinger not only successfully defended U.S. farm policy on the merits but he handed back to CATO just a small taste of what they like to dish out.

If all of the other [government] agencies could be as successful as [farm policy] has been, we wouldn't have a deficit; we would actually have a surplus. A lot of money that [farm policy has] saved has gone to companies like [those] that fund [the] CATO Institute [in the form of bailouts]... I'm out here doing my job, trying to do the best I can.

That's when things really got interesting.

Agitated, the CATO spokesman argued that Cleavinger and other U.S. farmers need to operate more like the so-called free-marketed Australia. But Cleavinger wasn't buying it.

I think our viewers have to understand who is funding CATO. They're funded by multi-national corporations, foreign countries, big oil, and cigarette companies.

One of my biggest competitors is Australia...they are required to sell to the Australian Wheat Board. And when they sell to the Australian Wheat Board, there are huge transportation subsidies that undercut me in the world market where I couldn't sell wheat at the same price.

We all talk about free trade but we have to have fair trade. The Australian Wheat Board was subsidizing Saddam Hussein. They were found guilty of kickbacks and I had to compete against that. This is just one example of why we have to have [farm policy] in the United States. I can compete against any producer in the world, but I cannot compete against foreign countries and I cannot compete against foreign treasuries.

To view the whole exchange, check out this clip on CATO's YouTube page.