The thing about cotton candy is that it looks nice and
fluffy – It's pink! It's poofy! – but
as soon as you actually take a bite, unless you're a four-year-old with a
serious sugar-tooth, you realize how awful it actually is.
That's kind of how the U.S. sugar program works, too, except
instead of sugar-addled kids, the folks who like it are sugar-growing farmers
who benefit from the program. The problems with federal sugar subsidies are well-documented, but
year after year, the sugar lobby keeps the pressure on and taxpayer money flowing. And lo and
behold, it appears that's exactly what's happened, once again, with the new farm bill.
Seems the bill's authors weren't content merely to stuff it full of
pork; they also decided they needed to add to the subsidies
and favors our sugar program already gives to Big Sugar. Rep. Paul Ryan's got the gory
details.
