Farm Bill Largesse - Sugar "Beets" Food Stamps

http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/25/sugar-lobby-sweetens-deal-for-house-republicans-protecting-subsidy/

Interesting article about the politics of sugar in America.
 

Mr. Steiger,
Your point is well made. You indicate that the subsidy is in part attributable to government policy regarding sugar.

In other industry, like electronics, consumer goods, etc., foreign governments engage in activity known as "dumping." The subsidize markets to make a foreign market in which to "dump" goods. The US has a long and rich history of curtailing the practice of dumping when it damages US industry. In the case of Sugar Beets, instead of curtailing the practice, the government has decided to subsidize your market.

In the process, the extraction of a tax on the public, to finance this mal-investment being paid directly to you and other farmers like you, results in cheaper sugar, which produces fat people, which produces an ever-expanding market for health care. I bet they sell it to the gullible media as a "job creator." What a country!


 

Mr. Steiger. I didn't mean to imply that all sugar beet farmers are rich...but they are not poor. Because of the protected market, they have far less risk than other farmers. And consider the idea that with all the "free" trade agreements that we have signed over the years, most jobs in this country have to compete with other countries that do the same subsidization that you have to deal with in South America. Protecting sugar beets while cutting food stamps is not a fair deal.
 

Two quick points. First I am a beet farmer and I invite anyone to come see me and tell me how rich I am, my new vehicle is 10 years old.
Second, I can compete against any sugar grower in the world, I cannot compete against the governments of Brazil, India, Australia, and other south pacific nations that buy their farmers crops at set prices only to dump the excess sugar on the world market at huge losses.

End all subsidies on crops, sugar included, I am all for that. Then I will get rich. But it must be done world wide. crop subsidies are designed to keep food prices low.
 

What happened to Dave? What have you done with him? What happened to the guy hell-bent on attacking along strict party lines all the time? I'm liking this new Dave guy!

Subsidy, in ANY form, produces mal-investment. Farmers can fail to plant a crop and still get paid. Some of this is through private insurance, but the ever-present subsidy in beets, corn, tobacco, you name it, creates a market for things that have no business getting subsidy.

Milk, cheese, chicken, beef, pork, the list goes on-and-on. And now they are force feeding milk to seniors. How about breakfast and weekend meals to school children? All through the Ag programs.

The food markets are so "cooked," it seems to me we no longer understand 'normal.' Somebody with a brain needs to start advocating for the new normal. Reset budgets back to balanced. Just do it damn it! Our nation's so-called "free market economy," which is a joke, is so cooked by subsidy and regulatory tweaking that nobody really has a grasp of what the new normal might be. Maybe we need to revisit the social experiment called the 16th Amendment of 1913? How about assessing the deficit based on the old apportionment methods? I'm just sayin...

Imagine a world where there is no income tax! The Governor writes one check for the entire State of Minnesota! No rich vs poor debates. No pretending to support the poor while enslaving them to long established systemic slavery. Maybe we should repeal the 16th Amendment! I think there needs to be a serious public debate. After 99 years, was it successful or destructive? Has it destroyed or maintained state's rights?

At some point, somebody with a spine needs to stand up and balance this budget using whatever methods necessary to restore our currency before the political stalemate destroys our entire country.