Congress is on the verge of extruding a new five-year farm bill. President Barack Obama says he will sign it.
As has each and every farm bill for coming up on eighty years:
Indeed it does.
Congress Seeks to Jack Up Fees on Home Heating Oil...
Thank goodness we???re experiencing such stark global warming.
Oh. Outstanding.
The fee would last for nearly 20 years???
Four times longer than the interminable farm bill.
???and would siphon the money to develop equipment that is cheaper, more efficient and safer???.
Because the government is so excellent as a venture capital firm.
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As Many As 50 Obama-Backed Green Energy Companies Bankrupt or Troubled
So they???re taxing our energy bills - for more of these fabulous ???investments.???
???and to encourage consumers to update their equipment.
My monthly electric bill is currently the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Cuba - I???m already full-up on reasons to update my equipment. Yet another tax won???t ???encourage??? me - so much as infuriate me.
???(T)he bill taxpayers may foot for crop insurance subsidies???at least $89 billion over ten years???may outweigh what taxpayers would have contributed in direct (farm) subsidies. There are other many other costly bells and whistles to be found in the bill.
In short, what Congress has billed as a cost-cutting reform measure is nothing of the sort.
The conservative opposition to this nightmare mess is nigh universal. Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and Club for Growth are all rightly counting a Yes vote against anyone who casts it.
Heck, even the un-conservative Washington Post is opposed. And look at the uber-Leftist website Crooks and Liars:
Provision Requiring Lawmakers to Disclose Subsidies Removed From Final Farm Bill
The welfare queens in our Congress don't want Americans knowing how much they are receiving in farm subsidies.
But this is Washington, D.C. - where reality goes to die. Soon - likely by the end of this week - the farm bill will be farm law.
So - what next?
This Colossus will be astride us for the next half decade. There will be nothing more to do about domestic farm policy except to sit here and take it. Oh - and pay for it. And borrow for it, so our progeny can also pay for it - with interest.
So let???s take all of this unified, righteous energy and channel it towards something with the potential to effect a far better future outcome.
Let???s make the global farm market safe for domestic reform the next go round.
(O)ur lather-rinse-repeat anti-free-market farm policy (has) warped the emerging global farm market. The world???s growers saw our bad moves ??? and matched them. Subsidy-for-subsidy, tax-for-tax, protectionism-for-protectionism.
Seven decades later, we have a worldwide Crony Socialist nightmare mess???.
None of this has anything to do with a free exchange of goods.
The solution? Negotiate a global across-the-board reduction in government.
This is where the World Trade Organization, usually a colossal waste of space, can actually be of some good use???.
The world???s sugar-producing nations need to sit down together, each with a copy of everyone else???s lists of protectionist sugar policies. And start horse trading.
???Brazil ??? how about if you get rid of this subsidy, we???ll each get rid of one.???
???Mexico ??? if you get rid of this tariff, we???ll each get rid of one.???
Let the subsequent discussions ensue. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Something good should come of this farm law heinousness. To set the stage for far less farm bill heinousness five years hence.
