Donald Trump attacked Ted Cruz for not supporting ethanol subsidies.  He said in Iowa on Friday, "Oil companies give him a lot of money, so he's for oil."

The thing about oil and gas is, it doesn't require big subsidies, because it's the cheapest and most efficient form of fuel for cars.  Ethanol, on the other hand, does require big government subsidies, because it is highly uneconomical.  Ethanol is much more expensive than oil and gas and, gallon for gallon, produces much less energy than gasoline.  That's why the government has to hand over billions in subsidies to big agri-businesses to keep it going.  And that's also why the government has to force oil companies to blend ethanol in with their fuels.  Because without government coercion, oil companies wouldn't do it, and the price of gasoline would be substantially lower than it is now.

Additionally, ethanol actually acts as a corrosive on car engines.  It slowly degrades car parts over time.

But the worst thing about ethanol is that not only does it require taxpayer subsidies, and not only does it raise the price of blended gas, but it also raises the price of many different kinds of foods.  Ethanol is made with corn – a lot of it.  And when a lot of corn production is diverted to ethanol, there is less corn available to use for food.  Corn is heavily used as a sweetener in many food products.  By raising the price of corn, the price of many different kinds of foods are raised.

That is what subsidizing ethanol gives us.  That is what Donald Trump is for and Ted Cruz is against.  Ted Cruz is starting to lead in some Iowa polls, and he's doing it without this kind of pandering.

I think Donald Trump is fabulous when it comes to immigration and securing our borders, even better than Ted Cruz.  But on economic issues, Donald Trump is no economic conservative.  His tax plan would not lower taxes as much as Cruz's and would take many taxpayers off the tax rolls entirely, giving them no incentives to vote against tax hikes on the rest of us.

If only we could take the immigration part of Trump and merge it with the rest of Cruz, we'd have the ideal candidate.

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.