[cjoh]

ConAgra's secret? X.XB in Government Subsidies.

Exxon's secret? x.xB in government subsidies.

Apple's Secret? X.XB in Government Subsidies.

Your House's Secret? 188.7B in Government Subsidies. (the home interest deduction is, itself, one of the largest subsidies there is, and probably the biggest gateway into home depot)

Point being: Government Subsidies are huge. Saying it's anybody's secret is just sensational.

What's remarkable, actually, is how little we know and how hard it is to count up all the subsidies -- especially when you count tax expenditures.

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/archived-projects/subsidyscope is a good place to learn about this stuff. But dated.

[JoeAltmaier]

A billion here, a billion there, it adds up and soon you're talking real money.

Really, talking about a billion dollar subsidy is probably not worth debating in Congress, since its a trivial part of the national budget. A billion is the kind of small change we SHOULD be tossing around to encourage innovation, support an embattled industry or sustain a hard-hit segment of our population.