Jeff Miller: “today, I would like to bring to the attention of the House the problems with the failing U.S. sugar program. The sugar…”

“today, I would like to bring to the attention of the House the problems with the failing U.S. sugar program. The sugar daddy of corporate welfare is one of the most egregious programs that we have in the Federal Government, and it is now in the process of imploding. It is a really bad, big government program that is hard to understand in our great government we have here that we continue to have a program that just does not fit in our free enterprise capitalistic economy that we have. It is a program that is bad for the consumer. It is bad for jobs in this country. It is bad for the environment. It is bad trade policy. It just makes zero economic sense. The way the program works is, the Federal Government kind of acts like OPEC, they want to manage supply to keep the prices high. Now, we are required to allow some sugar to be imported into the United States. The Government has a loan program that they say we will guarantee the price will not drop below this amount or else we will buy the sugar. Well, all of a sudden for the first time in decades, they are on the verge of getting ready to buy a lot of sugar. As reported in the newspaper this morning, the AP wire service story says ``got a sweet tooth? Uncle Sam wants you.'' The Government is thinking about buying 250,000 tons of surplus sugar to pump up the domestic price, but then what will officials do with all the sugar? Enough to fill two-thirds of the Empire State Building.”