Can a Republican House Stop Farm Subsidy Nonsense? Yeah Right
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
Listen, I am all for farmers getting a piece if it means they can keep bringing me ice cold milk, cheese curds and corn. I don’t want f**king corn in my gasoline, I’m talking corn on my plate. I don’t think people who own farm land should be given free money just because someone once grew something there. But more notoriously anti-big-government Republicans in DC isn’t going to do much to solve the problem of ethanol subsidies as many of them would have pissed off constituents to deal with if their people didn’t get a cut. When, oh when will we learn? The Republicans only dislike free money for other people’s people, their own seem strangely immune to this belief that the dole should not be passed around. Fire up the corn!
The Renewable Fuels Association (or generalize and say "the biofuel lobby") doesn’t seem very afraid of the idea of losing any precious federal farmer bribe cash with the Republicans finally back in town and they really shouldn’t be. As we all know, just because they aren’t Democrats doesn’t mean they won’t be giving away their fair share of protection money, be it cornfield or infrastructure. It’s all the same and you can’t tell me Chuck Grassley is over in Iowa turning down free money for his Iowa people.
See also Stephen Moore via Cato:
Rep. Bill Archer, R-Tex., is a heroic politician. He is heroic not just because he has constructed a commendable tax cut bill, despite the tight budget constraints that Bill Clinton and Republican leaders forced upon him. He is also heroic for his courage in taking on a foe that has intimidated most of his Capitol Hill colleagues: Washington’s parasitic ethanol lobby.
Ethanol is a corn-based gasoline substitute. Gasoline is a creation of the marketplace, but ethanol is a creation of Washington, D.C. The ethanol program originated in the late 1970s during the energy crisis. A quarter-century later, there is no energy crisis and virtually every independent assessment –by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, NBC News and several academic journals — has concluded that ethanol subsidies have been a costly boondoggle with almost no public benefit.
Yet even after ethanol has siphoned $7 billion from the federal treasury, the mighty ethanol subsidies still flow. Why? Ethanol’s survival has nothing to do with economics or the environment and everything to do with political muscle. Almost 70 percent of ethanol is produced by America’s premier agri-giant, Archer Daniels Midland. ADM, the self-proclaimed "supermarket to the world," has spent a small fortune on farming Capitol Hill over the past 20 years. Through programs like ethanol and sugar price supports, it has reaped a profitable harvest from taxpayers. In fact, an estimated 40 percent of ADM’s profits come from government-subsidized products.
Whoops, looks like the ethanol lobby f**ked up and revealed the diabolical plan. As long as they make ethanol appear to "be linked to jobs", they believe they (and their big fat tax credits) are safe. Snicker, so transparent:
Before the new lawmakers take office in January, Congress may seek a short-term extension of the tax credit at 36 cents a gallon, said Kevin Book, the managing director of Clearview Energy Partners LLC.
That would be less than extensions supported by the industry, including Poet, Archer Daniels and smaller companies including Green Plains Renewable Energy Corp.
Keeping the credit will be “an uphill battle,” said Robert Dinneen, the chief executive officer of the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group that includes Archer Daniels and Pacific Ethanol Inc.. The key to maintaining support will be linking ethanol production to jobs, he said.
“I don’t want to see plants shut down” and jobs lost should the credit expire, he said.
Stupid f**ker, you aren’t supposed to reveal the criminal blueprint at such a politically-critical point in time like this. Cornfield protection money FAIL.
