Comment by JoeAltmaier
2 years ago
Meat subsidies? There are programs to support smaller suppliers, increase competition. Not directly make beef cheaper.
It's something like a billion a year? Sounds like a lot; your part was $2.50 in taxes. Not very significant in a trillion-dollar budget.
Removing these programs would probably have the opposite effect: letting competition languish would leave one or two large players, who could set the prices anywhere they liked. Probably not lower.
The point of the comment wasn't the meat prices, but the preservation of the environment. Higher prices will mean less consumption which will mean less production so a environment win, and still room for a small but also expensive producer or two. Unless the duopoly will want higher production and decrease the prices so we will land in the same place, environment-wise. Or am I getting the subsidies point wrong?
I don't see how the money spent by the government to encourage competition (not strictly a 'subsidy' which means 'price support') has any effect on the environment.