GET RID OF THE WHOLE CODE AND JUST TAX CONSUMPTION:

The first chapter lays out how farm subsidies and supports introduced during the Great Depression have morphed into the current $867 billion farm bill -- up from the previous $489 billion bill, which ended in 2018. According to the authors, "Ninety percent of farmland in America is covered under a farm program subsidy and most of the money goes to big farming operations."

The top recipient, Alamo Freight Lines, "received over $5.6 million in 2014 alone, qualifying for subsidies because of farmland it leases in West Texas, even though its primary business doesn't involve farming or farm property." The authors point out that those in the top 1 percent in terms of farm income received an average of $1.5 million in annual farm subsidies in 2015.

Subsequent chapters highlight what one would hope are other unintended consequences of state subsidies and tax incentives. Many were designed to create more jobs. By comparing the number of jobs promised to the loss in tax revenue or subsidy provided, the authors make clear the lengths to which local governments will go to create a few jobs.

Clean Coal Power Options, for instance, promised to create 830 local jobs for $500 million in tax rebates in McCracken County, Kentucky. And Ector County, Texas, was promised 100 local jobs in return for $91 million in property tax abatements for a carbon-capture coal gasification plant.

The authors point out that the job argument is often just window dressing: The number of jobs actually created is usually lower than promised. The benefits accrue to the investors instead.

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