Club Disappointed With Answers on Subsidies
Club for Growth Disappointed with Giuliani and Romney Answers on Farm Subsidies
Washington – The Club for Growth expressed disappointment with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney’s answers on farm subsidies during the CNN/You Tube debate tonight.
When asked whether they support agricultural subsidies, both Mayor Giuliani and Governor Romney answered in the affirmative, arguing that the subsidy program is necessary to protect the country’s food source and that it would be unfair to American farmers to eliminate subsidies when other countries maintain their own subsidies. Their answers were particularly disappointing given their strong rhetoric in favor of protecting American taxpayers and promoting limited government.
There are several basic economic problems with agricultural subsidies:
- Government should not be subsidizing any industry in America. It is simply not the proper role of the federal government.
- Farm subsidies, as they currently exist, take tax dollars from middle-class Americans and dole them out to wealthy farmers. It is nothing more than an income redistribution program.
- Farm subsidies distort the agricultural economy and create perverse incentives to grow crops based on their subsidy value rather than their market value.
- Farm subsidies impede our ability to expand international trade. High subsidies allow foreign countries to rationalize their own subsidies and their obstacles to importing American agricultural products.
- The notion that we need farm subsidies to protect the country’s food source is absurd. The country is not suffering from a lack of food supply. In fact, America is one of the world’s leading agricultural producers.
- Finally, the “unfair” argument is a protectionist claim, under the guise of supporting American farmers. If subsidized European produce is cheaper than unsubsidized American produce, American consumers should have the option of buying the cheaper produce, no matter where it comes from. If other countries want to let their taxpayers subsidize American consumption, we should not stand in their way.
“To date, Governor Romney, Governor Huckabee, and Mayor Giuliani are on record supporting wasteful and taxpayer-funded agricultural subsidies,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “We encourage these candidates to consider the economic arguments weighing heavily against subsidies, and explain how they plan on fighting for American taxpayers and free trade when they support a wasteful system that fleeces middle-class taxpayers, distorts the market, and hampers international trade.”
