Why do the Bundys have to pay to graze cattle on federal land?

Maybe it’s true that I’m getting old and brain cells are dying off, but I would like to pose this one simple question: Why should the Bundy family have to pay the Bureau of Land Management fees to graze their cattle on federal land in Nevada? It would seem to me that the federal government should pay the Bundy family. After all, we have a nation to feed and even the feds eat beef.

This saga about grazing rights goes all the way back to the old range wars. An armed standoff and anti-American rhetoric was a poor approach to the situation, but it would have been avoidable from the very start had the range been open to grazing without a fee. Existing tax laws are enough, and grazing fees amount to double taxation.

The situation smells a lot like an ongoing soap opera that will never end until grazing fees are negated and the land is used for a good purpose without federal intervention.