How do you get to be POTUS? The perception is, …
Perception is reality insofar as it is reacted to.
The pols who pander to voters in Iowa drive the policy.
Interestingly, Iowa state has a fairly nuanced and balanced study published on corn subsidies:
https://www.card.iastate.edu/products/policy-briefs/display/…
These results demonstrate that ethanol subsidies have contributed to high corn prices and higher food prices since 2005, but the impacts have been small. The largest difference in corn prices, in 2007, would have been $0.30 per bushel, or about 7%. This relatively small change in corn prices necessarily implies that the contribution of ethanol subsidies to food inflation is largely imperceptible in the United States. However, this does not mean that the contribution of ethanol to food inflation is imperceptible.
…
Averaging across 2006–2009, subsidies contributed an average of $0.14 per bushel (8%) to the increase in corn prices. Market-based ethanol expansion contributed an average of $0.45 per bushel, or about 27% of the total increase. Together, subsidies plus market-driven expansion of ethanol caused about 36% of the increase in corn prices in 2006 to 2009 relative to 2004 levels.
In other words, it is largely the use of Ethanol, not the subsidies, that are driving prices higher.
Since, unlike oil, ethanol is largely/entirely used for transportation fuels, I have to imagine that this is a dying industry.
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