ON FARM SUBSIDIES

"After the unnecessary and wasteful farm subsidies in the run-up to the last election, congressional Democrats now are revealing that their talk of fiscal restraint was all hat and no cattle by proposing $280 million in government handouts disguised as a farm bill. No surprise, liberals refuse to let go of the economic reins despite 75 years of government command and control over agriculture. Statistical data reveal agriculture subsidies are mostly awarded to wealthy farmers and confer no benefit to small farmers (those worth less than $2 million with net incomes below $200,000), while the largest nine percent of all U.S. farms receive 56 percent of all subsidies under the current bill. Subsidies are costly to taxpayers and consumers, and they undermine the agricultural sector by creating surpluses of unneeded products while falsely spurring overconsumption of others. The mad dash (created in part by subsidies) to turn corn into ethanol has caused the downstream effect of driving up prices for nearly all other food, since corn occupies the most prominent foundation block of the American food chain."

-- PATRIOT POST