Why Ag Subsidies Should Go

Dylan Matthews makes a pithy argument:

While subsidies have stabilized in the past few years around $100billion a year -- a huge number, given that agriculture (not includingthings like cotton and tobacco) only accounted for $136 billionof GDP in 2009 -- the composition has changed, with general support andconsumer subsidies gaining ground and producer subsidies falling. Thislevel of spending, as many have pointed out, artificially lowers theprice of U.S. agricultural goods, driving up U.S...