Danny Davis: “Some of our colleagues defend the sugar subsidy as a no-net-cost program. If that was ever true, it is not true today.…”

“Some of our colleagues defend the sugar subsidy as a no-net-cost program. If that was ever true, it is not true today. The sugar program costs plenty. It costs tax dollars. Last year the Department of Agriculture spent $465 million on sugar subsidies. It costs consumers. The General Accounting Office, a congressional agency, estimates that the people who consume and use sugar, which is all of us, pay an additional $1.9 billion a year because the Federal sugar subsidy keeps prices higher than they would be in a free market. And the sugar program costs industry. Companies in my community, in my neighborhood, and other places throughout the country are moving away because the price is too high. That is unfair. It is unfair to consumers, it is unfair to workers, and it is unfair to America.”