Agreed with the elimination of subsidies, both here and abroad. Zero need to continue to pay people to own a home, buy a car, etc.
Talk about death by a thousand cuts...
http://v2.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/11/09/131192182/cotton
Why U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying Brazilian Cotton Growers
In other words, the United States and Brazil are in the middle of a war over cotton. It's an emotional and quiet war complete with global retaliation and a $147 million bribe. It all started with a man named Pedro Camargo.
Pedro is a Brazilian cattle farmer and former trade official. He has huge glasses and a gray bushy mustache. He says the U.S. is cheating.
U.S. cotton farmers, Pedro says, get subsidies from the U.S. government that add up to somewhere between $1.5 billion and $4 billion a year.
The American negotiators sat down in Brazil and immediately declared it impossible to get rid of the cotton subsidies right away. But the two sides came to an agreement.
The U.S. would pay Brazilian cotton farmers $147 million a year, and Brazil would drop the threat of retaliation.
To review: The United States was found to be illegally subsidizing U.S. cotton farmers. We are still subsidizing U.S. cotton farmers. Now the U.S. paying Brazilian cotton farmers, too.
"Maybe it's a bribe," Pedro Camargo says. "For Brazilian farmers, it's a lot of money."
