Jeff Miller: “It costs in several areas in taxes. Because, first of all, the American consumer is the American taxpayer. So I am not…”

“It costs in several areas in taxes. Because, first of all, the American consumer is the American taxpayer. So I am not sure of the distinction. When the American consumer pays $1.4 billion more for sugar than they need to, it costs the American taxpayer, too. But it costs the taxpayer in other ways we don't realize. For example the sugar program is bad for the environment. It really is bad for the Everglades. There was an editorial in the New York Times on Sunday talking about the Everglades problem and sugar's contribution to it. Now sugar is not the only problem to the Everglades. It is a major contributor to the destruction of the Everglades and the Florida Bay. The problem with it, for example, is to solve the Everglades problem, part of the solution is to buy 100,000 acres of land in the Everglades' agricultural area. Last year, we put $2 million in the farm bill to help buy that land. We are going to buy 100,000 acres, most of it in sugar, but because of the sugar program, we are going to pay an inflated price for the land. It is going to cost us probably $100 million more to buy this land from the sugar farmers because of the sugar program. It is crazy.”