The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, recently hinted at scaling back the onerous ethanol mandate associated within the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). This news prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to threaten that, should Pruitt pursue scaling back the mandate, Donald Trump’s EPA nominees would essentially be prevented from receiving confirmation. An example of cronyism at its worst.

It’s tough to drain the swamp when politicians are more concerned with protecting the special interests of their big money donors than the freedoms of the constituents who have elected them. The ethanol mandate has been a boon for King Corn but little more than troublesome for everyone else, including the environment (which the RFS was ostensibly created to protect). In short, the ethanol mandate is one of the nation’s biggest boondoggles.

But Grassley’s threat was also a veiled threat aimed at Trump’s judicial nominees. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley can effectively sideline any vote on nominees. Grassley has put the squeeze on Trump, and Trump responded. On Wednesday, the White House ordered the EPA to put a hold on any changes to the ethanol mandate. King Corn wins again. Like Barack Obama did with “Clean Energy” and his war on coal, the government picking winners and losers is not what Americans need or want. Sadly, too many Republicans are guilty of playing this same crony game for which they blasted Obama.

End the corruption. End the ethanol mandate. Let ethanol stand on its own in the free market without the government artificially propping it up. As destructive and inefficient as it is, though, its defenders know that’s not possible. Thus the continued cronyism.