This week two national newspapers have included opinion pieces critical of federal milk regulations and of the Dairy Market Stabilization Plan, the controversial milk supply management program that may be soon be considered by the House of Representatives as part of the 2012 Farm Bill. 

In Politico Tom Schatz, president of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, and Pete Sepp, executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, write that the Dairy Market Stabilization Program would force many Americans to pay higher prices for dairy-related products from pizza to yogurt. “And for lower-income families, the choice would be much worse than hanging up the phone on the pizza man. Some would have to make do with less in their shopping carts,” according to Schatz and Sepp. Read the Politico column here.

In the Boston Globe John Sununu, former New Hampshire senator and White House chief of staff for president George H.W. Bush, says that because of the cost of milk price regulations, “American consumers pays a 50 percent premium above prevailing world prices for both butter and cheese [which] adds up to billions per year in higher household costs created purely by the regulatory machine.” He concludes that “there simply are no arguments left to justify a system of market controls that are so fragmented, anti-competitive, and expensive.” Read the Boston Globe column here.