Fwd: Sowing the seeds of cronyism

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arthur Brooks
Date: Thursday, September 6, 2012
Subject: Sowing the seeds of cronyism
To: Bruce Majors <majors.bruce@gmail.com>

Dear Mr. Majors,

Next week Congress comes back from the August recess--with two weeks of session before farm programs expire. The farm lobby will be pushing hard for the House of Representatives to take up the farm bill, which proposes to spend almost a trillion dollars over the next decade.

It's no exaggeration to say that this year's farm bill is an example of exactly what's wrong with Washington. It embodies the two biggest threats to American free enterprise today: the heavy-handed central planning of statism and competition-destroying beggar-thy-neighbor cronyism. From the $5.6 billion spent annually on crop insurance subsidies to the $1.3 billion we spend on milk subsidies, American agriculture policy is replete with cronyism and special-interest subsidies.

It's not fair, it's bad economics, and it's bad policy.

That's why AEI is building on our yearlong research project "American Boondoggle: Fixing the Farm Bill" by launching AmericanBoondoggle.com, a one-stop shop for AEI research on the farm bill. The site includes:

• a new two-minute video that explains how the farm bill is a giveaway to cronyist special interests,
• a quiz that lets you test your knowledge of the farm bill, and
• an interactive map that lets you see what the farm bill means for taxpayers in your state.

We need your help to get the word out about what the farm bill means, so I would appreciate your help sharing AmericanBoondoggle.com with friends, relatives, colleagues, and others who may be interested. Agriculture policy doesn't typically make headlines. That needs to change.

If we're serious about standing up for free enterprise in America, that means standing up to statism and cronyism. And the farm bill that Congress will soon pick up is an example of both.

Sincerely,

Arthur C. Brooks

To be removed from this mailing list, please email Lori.Sanders@aei.org.

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