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Thursday, June 30, 2005

Subsidies upon subsidies

When last we checked on Smilin' Norm, Minnesota's junior senator was playing coy about CAFTA. It looks like he's back on board:

President George W. Bush, who reached an agreement with the six Central American nations more than a year ago, hasn't been able to convince lawmakers to ratify Cafta because of opposition from unions, textile producers and sugar makers. At a meeting with lawmakers yesterday Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns presented a plan to cap sugar imports into the U.S. until 2008 and study a plan to subsidize sugar use for ethanol production.

The pledges were enough to garner support for Cafta from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, both of whom had opposed Cafta. It wasn't immediately clear how many other lawmakers would be won over by the agreement.

Sugar producers are huge political donors. So, while the EU is planning to scale back its sugar subsidies, the U.S. market enjoys tariffs that make sugar beet production viable. Then, THEN!, the new plan is to add a subsidy on the back end to turn sugar beets into ethanol.

Only a craven, opportunistic politician like Coleman would think this system of subsidizing special interests coming and going is a good plan.