Vote 'Yes' on S. 685 

April 1, 2011

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator,

Senator Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) recently introduced S. 685, the Free Sugar Act of 2011, a bill to repeal sugar price supports, marketing allotments and import quotas and tariffs that keep the domestic cost of sugar artificially high.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to support this important legislation. 

It is time to dissolve the U.S. sugar program, an imprudent system which has survived since the New Deal era.  Its antiquated, Soviet-style command-and-control structure has proven to be detrimental to American consumers and businesses, as it creates artificially high sugar prices that greatly affect the cost of food and beverages.  On the world market, refined sugar is sold at $0.34 per pound.  However, Americans pay twenty cents more than the average world consumer due to a combination of market allotments, which assure domestic producers at least 85 percent of the market; strict import quotas and tariffs, which prohibit buyers from taking advantage of lower priced sugar available internationally; and a twisted system of price supports, which grants “loans” (i.e. taxpayer dollars) to processors when prices fall below the official level to ensure that “Big Sugar” gets a sweet deal.  If processors are unable to sell their sugar on the open market at a price higher than the loan rate, they can repay this loan in the form of sugar. 

This convoluted, iniquitous system is unfair and unnecessary, and is costing taxpayers a staggering $4 billion annually.  While the House and Senate have agreed to earmark moratoriums for the 112th Congress, lawmakers should now be working to eliminate corporate welfare programs that benefit a few select companies at the expense of hard-working American consumers and businesses. 

At a time when the nation’s debt has ballooned to more than $14.2 trillion, members of Congress should be looking for every viable way to cut wasteful spending.  There’s no better place to start than with the U.S. sugar program.  I strongly urge you to support the Free Sugar Act of 2011.  All votes on S. 685 will be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2011 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Thomas Schatz,
President