More Subsidy Insanity

As the biggest dairy consumer I know, this subsidy really ticks me off.

From Chris Edwards, director of tax policy at Cato:

To enforce artificially high prices, the government imposes import barriers on milk, butter, cheese, and other products. Without those barriers, consumers could simply purchase lower-priced foreign goods. Imports of cheese, butter, and dried milk are limited to about five percent or less of U.S. consumption.

All these policies add up to higher prices. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that U.S. policies create a 26 percent "implicit tax" on milk consumers. That "milk tax" is regressive, meaning that it harms low-income families the most.

The Government Accountability Office compared U.S. dairy prices to world prices over the period 1998 to 2004. It found that U.S. prices for butter averaged twice the world price, cheese prices were about 50 percent higher, and dry milk prices were 24 percent or more higher.

So we limit competition, subsidize and restrict imports, all clearly having the effect of increased prices. Then, in order for the poor to afford milk and mac-and-cheese, we’ve got to fund WIC programs and the like.

Shouldn't we stop this? Let's do it "for the children." And me.