If there is any issue that sends economic conservatives into apolexy (besides taxes), it’s farm subsidies. There is no policy more damaging to America’s poor while being an unnecessary version of corporate welfare. Yet farm subsidies are practically untouchable, with no presidential candidate willing to even challenge the economic nonsense that they are.
No presidential candidate, that is, until John McCain (Wisconsin State Journal via NRO – The Corner):
Should farmers keep that safety net? Both Democratic presidential candidates think so. In a tough 2004 re-election fight, Republican President Bush said he, too, would support renewing the program in spite of its cost to taxpayers. But this year’s GOP frontrunner, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, says he can’t do that.
“At a time when Americans must work four months a year just to pay their taxes, John McCain cannot support farm policies that are too costly for the taxpayer, particularly when they also play a negative role in encouraging farmers to rely on government subsidies,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said of the dairy subsidy.
John McCain has his faults, but he also has attributes no other presidential candidate has had in decades.
