[elpadre]

Maybe if we stopped the production of ethanol and sold the corn we would be better off.

[proxy_user]

And use the money to buy oil? That would be too sensible.

[OldDeckHand]

"Maybe if we stopped the production of ethanol and sold the corn we would be better off. "

I'm not a fan of ethanol subsidies, but honestly, some of the anti-ethanol hysteria is a bit overblown. What we spend in federal tax dollars on ethanol isn't even a rounding error on the annual federal deficit. Moreover, at least when the government spends American money on ethanol, it's money that is eventually reinvested into the US economy - this is very much unlike the money that Americans spend on petrol, which of course goes back to the middle-east to help some crown prince put a new solid-gold toilet on his Airbus 330.

Would it be nice if ethanol subsidies went away? Sure. But does it really impact the deficit in any substantive way? Not really.