If there's one takeaway I'd like you to have from this conversation, it's that being the lowest bidder in competitive, fixed price contracts is a very different thing from a subsidy.

Because subsidies actually do exist. So do cost-plus contracts, which, without oversight, actually are similar to subsidies.

These are important, basic principles of how the government spends money. Lack of understanding them is ultimately an impediment to having a cost effective government.