host: dave swenson, in a speech to the issue at all of farm subsidies? -- can you speak to the issue? guest: all farm producers, kan., iowa, texas, corn, wheat, soy, they have all been beneficiaries is directly, but especially over the last 15 years, of a very beneficial subsidies to the agricultural sector. they were designed early on to be stabilizing subsidies by the usda and congress has wrestled with exactly what the right amount of subsidies should be applied to achieve a specific goal. the farmers have changed the nature of the subsidies and they promised to lessen them over time as well moving away from a direct subsidy on a per acre or per commodity basis to more of an indirect subsidy. for example, using a combination of federal subsidies and market mechanisms, like crop insurance, and other types of stabilizing mechanisms to maintain farm income. it is generally agreed, yes, we do have a disproportionate share of agricultural subsidies because we do produce a disproportionate share of agricultural product. i would not pass the laws, but they a

dave swenson, anything in the earlier part of his comments you can apply to the discussion here?ant to make one thing clear. iowa's economy is very diverse. it's not an ag economy. largest manufacturing sector in terms of g -- g.d.p. and employment, the second largest is pping finance and banking, then we move down the line and get agriculture. agriculture maybe explains about 4% of the jobs on the farm level. we do have an agricultureal products sector. that sector tends to be stable. during hard times, we eat. we don't have the cyclical fluctations in the hiring the the ag economy though over time is requiring fewer and fewer workers, more and more machines. that's part of the depopulation of the rural area is that agriculture just doesn't need very many people to produce a lot be -- of the goods and services. we do have a manufacturing sector that's more stable. but the biggest part of iowa's manufacturing is durable goods. we make washing machines, windows, construction machinery, tractors, and recreational vehicles and that industry is very cyclical like the rest of the econ

later, dave swenson is our guest. each morning at 7:00 a.m. >> with the iowa caucuses next week in the primaries later in the month, c-span's series "the contenders" looks back at 14 candidates who ran for president but lost. friday, four-time governor george wallace. on saturday, george mcgovern, followed by ross perot. "the contenders" every night at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> now we will hear from presidential candidates michele bachmann -- she was on the radio show in des moines. she talked about foreign policy and the departure of her iowa campaign chairman. this is about 50 minutes. >> thank you for joining us this morning. we have ron paul coming in a little bit later, and we get a chance to talk with you here this morning. did you park the edsel out front? >> yes, we did, and it is of u.d.. >> in her biography, she actually admits and seems to be proud of that her family owned an edsel station wagon when you were a kid. >> it was huge. it had great horsepower. it was lime green, 1959 edsel station wagon. i don't think there was a