Dear editor,

Congressman Sean Duffy is in the pocket of the nation’s beet and cane sugar cartels. Duffy continually votes to maintain the U.S. Sugar Program. Why? It is really quite simple. Congressman Duffy has received well over $52,000 in political donations from the sugar cartels since coming to Washington in 2011.

Thanks to Rep. Duffy and others, the U.S. Sugar Program continues. The Sugar Program is a Soviet-style command-and-control scheme that restricts planting and imports. This inflates the price of sugar in the United States to almost double the world price. Thus, when you go to the store to buy a snack cake or anything sweetened, you pay more. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the program means Americans pay $3.5 billion every year in increased grocery costs, which breaks down to $58 per household.

In Rep. Duffy’s six years in office, he has repeatedly voted against sugar reform, costing each Wisconsin family an additional $348 for groceries. You have to ask yourself, is my congressman really fighting to make life better, or is he just another politician in it for the campaign contributions? It is time for Congressman Duffy to step up and end this costly government giveaway to the cartels.

Nicholas A. Pyle

Independent Bakers’ Association President