The Iowa Circus, cont...

Jan 3rd, 2011

Jonah Goldberg actually makes some sense in an otherwise (surprise) very smarmy piece:

"The real problem with the Iowa caucuses is simply that they confer too much entrenched arbitrary power on one state in perpetuity. For instance, without the Iowa caucuses we would never have wasted billions of dollars on environmentally damaging and economically wasteful ethanol subsidies."

Although Goldberg lamenting the sad state of the environment should raise eyebrows, he's correct. These ridiculous subsidies, arguably the last several decades most bi-partisan domestic boondoggle, would never have been so popular had they not been tied to the nation's highest volume corn producer and its place at the front of the race.

Although the subsidies have finally been allowed to lapse this year, the ill effect they had on both energy and agriculture will ripple for years.