Sen. Richard Lugar is right on this one -- the U.S. government needs to get out of the sugar business:
As part of his support for the Free Sugar Act of 2011, Lugar proposes the elimination of the federally mandated program that controls the American sugar supply. Those controls lead to what Lugar calls artificially-inflated costs. Lugar cited figures that suggest domestic businesses pay about 60 cents per pound for sugar, compared to the 35 cents per pound that foreign candy makers pay on the world market.
Lugar, who grows corn and soybeans on his farm outside Indianapolis, said the federal government's current policy protects Southern growers of sugar. He says that needs to end.
“It comes back to the protection of a very few growers who have had a hammerlock on, and they are not unique. I'm opposed to subsidies in general,” Lugar said.
Of course, that could be said about the government's invlovement in almost anything -- that it protects the very few who know how to use the system at the expense of the many who don't. Most agricultural subsidies go to a handful of the wealthiest growers, not to all fabled family farms we're supposed to be protecting. Wonder how Mr. Lugar would feel about ending all government agricultural programs
