If U.S. agriculture is doing so well, why subsidize the farmers? Time to eliminate the USDA?

The Cato Institute included the USDA in its "Downsize the Federal Government" series. The USDA was established in 1862 when we needed to have a federal agency help organize our agricultural industry. Nowadays the agriculture industry is as active as most other industries in the US, it is surviving and thriving. Begs the question of why increase government spending to cover the USDA? What are the taxpayers paying for? How about $20B in farm subsidies, $110B in food subsidies, $5M for oversight/administration, and over $1B of loss due to fraud and abuse. Because the USDA is involved in price regulating, they also set the prices on US farmed items, such as sugar, which is two times more expensive in the US than elsewhere. What if we eliminated the USDA? Cato proposes a cost savings of $140B! Not bad.

If you are bored, or curious...new Federal apps for your phone.

It must be because we are all coming back from the holidays that I thought this article was interesting. In any case, there are a few good apps worthy of downloading from the Federal government. If you are interested, the link is here. I have not tried to use any of the apps. Might pace myself and try them out tomorrow!