Posted on 11/24/2013 3:57:05 PM PST by Kaslin
Throughout the history of the country, Congress has done some pretty dumb things and their recent abysmal approval ratings shows that the American public is losing faith. Not to say it’s an institution built on imprudent thoughts and actions. No. In reality it’s a venerable institution responsible for some of the most important legal, social and political advancements in modern history. But it’s hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
For example, Congress once earmarked $50,000 in taxpayer money to support a museum honoring mules? Congress also spent $1.9 million on a Center for Public Service that would eventually honor a member of Congress who was censured by the House for 11 ethics violations.
For a long time bad decision making and wasteful spending were hallmarks of Congress. But rarely do voters have the opportunity to see such confluence happening ahead of time. The current Farm Bill provides us with just such an opportunity. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance has been a vocal critic of the Farm Bill, but there is one provision that may make taxpayers smile, the repeal of the USDA Catfish inspection program. It’s a program that has spent $20 million four years and not inspected a single fish. It’s a program the Government Accountability Office has targeted five times as a waste. It’s a program that the former Chief Judge of the highest court of international trade says will result in not just a trade war but a lawsuit the U.S will lose. It’s a program that’s on track to spend $170 million making USDA do a job FDA is
already doing.
And outside of a special interest lobby that wants to provide catfish farmers with a trade barrier to imported fish, who wants the program?
No one.
Doing away with this shrine to wasteful spending is supported by everyone from conservative Republicans to the “not so conservative” White House. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have opined in stereo about the absurdity of the program. When the Senate had the chance to vote on repeal the voice vote was deafening. And, the House passed repeal by a wide margin. It started with a handful of members of Congress. Then it was 25 and 50, then 150 and now opposition to the program is universal among members who rally around common sense.
Even politicians who “support” the program don’t support the program. When reporters come knocking defenders are otherwise engaged or out of town.
Is it money for mule museums? No. Actually it’s much worse because everyone knows about it and everyone knows it’s a waste and we have a real opportunity to kill it. No one supports it on any legitimate merits, yet Farm Bill conferees are still having to waste not just money but precious time debating its legitimacy.
The program itself and the unfortunate fact that everyone in Washington is talking about it shows the special interest handout culture that once permeated the hallowed halls of Congress lives. In this case that culture is illustrated, appropriately, by a bottom feeder.
It wastes millions and millions of tax dollars, its trade implications ironically hurt farmers and a clear bipartisan majority wants it done away with. Yet the Farm Bill conferees continue to debate, discuss and determine its future.
No wonder voters are fed up with Washington. Without putting too fine a historical point on it, this is one of those Congressional moments that is just plain dumb.
Congress gets worse every year.
They live like royalty on money they are stealing from our grandchildren.
Support Grows In House to Save Food Stamps by Killing Farm Bill
"Congress is getting ready to pass a farm bill—the $500 billion piece of legislation that funds agriculture and nutrition programs—that will cut funding for food stamps. As Mother Jones reported last week, Democrats in the House are considering banding together to derail the bill entirely, thus preserving nutrition funding at its current level. Support for that idea is building. House Democrats wager that if enough House Republicans vote against a final farm bill because they think the food stamps cuts are not deep enough, only a small group of Dems will need to also vote against the bill in order to kill it. In this case, food stamps would continue to be funded at current levels.
“For example, Congress once earmarked $50,000 in taxpayer money to support a museum honoring mules? “
That’s actually a museum I’d like to see.
Something about this story sounds fishy.
So if we dont pass a bill funding food stamps, food stamps continue to be funded?
Yes, I agree about the museum on mules.
The majority of people today do not know that before mechanized farming, mammoth mules were the muscles that planted crops and brought in the harvest.
Hehehe
Yep. Glad I’m not the only one to recognize this is fishy.
A huge number of Congressional members own farms that receive money from agriculture bills. They are, in essence, paying themselves.
How about stopping farmers from being paid NOT to plant crops?
A museum for mules is fine with me as it will have nothing but 4 legged critters. If it were a museum for Jack-asses, it would be filled with nothing but pictures of members of congress
where does this happen?
Around here, they’re not only planting every tillable inch, they’re knocking down the few remaining woods to grow even more.
The only “setaside” that some of them apply for, is the filter strip along ditches that helps keep their precious topsoil for heading to New Orleans.
Many counties are making them mandatory, whether you’re in the program or not
Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don’t Farm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR2006070100962.html
More Farmers Paid Not To Farm Land
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/more-farmers-paid-not-to-farm-land-wednesday-waste/#.UpKb8uKPwSo
Why do we pay farmers not to grow food?
http://campusbrownie.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/why-do-we-pay-farmers-not-to-grow-food/
I noticed the three cables or chains keeping the logs in place, which may or may not actually work. That guy on the very top of the logs is risking his life.
Where I live, in southwest Washington State, is timber country, mostly of harvested Douglas Fir shipped to Asia. More that one log truck has lost a load on the 2-lane roads around where I live, and those logs have crushed to death the vehicle behind the truck. Yes, the logs are restrained by cables or chains, but when a load shifts - lookout!
I suspect the horses in this photograph may have been harnessed just for the photograph. If you noticed, there is a log in the snow concealing the platform. Could be train wheels or sled runners, as there is snow on the ground. There are abandoned tracks in the woods out beyond where I live. Finding them is a good source of money for metal scroungers.
The city of Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River, was incorporated in 1812. Mainly at first a port for Hudson Bay Company to ship out furs, once the USA had possession it became a major source of lumber for the growing cities of California.
Old San Francisco (pre-1916) was built with wood from Oregon and Washington states. It was cheaper logistically to harvest fir there and ship them south to San Francisco rather than harvest in the Sierras and try to get it down the Sacramento River.
That looks like the outcome: 2014 Farm Bill contains language that would FINALLY brings some much needed reductions to the Food Stamps EBT scam). If they defeat the bill, then Congress goes along with last year’s funding, thus eliminating even one dime in cuts.
IF there are no chains connecting between the sides of this stack; then the whole mess is going to shift into a circular pile of logs; a lot lower and a log wider!
Thanks for the links.
But I stand by the statement that, around here, in some of the most valuable farmland in the country, that simply not the case.
I’ve worked with farmers for 40 years. I recognize many of the top Subsidy recipients in surrounding counties and have done work for them.
For the most part, these guys farm for a living and they farm every inch they can. But they also are not going to pass up the opportunities that the Government throws at them to make an extra buck.
That’s why we’re now having to fight these same farmers for taking lease money from Big Blow to cover our county in 500 foot tall Industrial Wind Turbines. (Also taxpayer subsidized)
So, to me, it’s a double edge sword. Our family business has benefitted from from those subsidies as 99% of our income is ultimately paid by farmers
The 'poor' folks can run them and learn a trade at the same time.
A walk down to the corner is not going to wear anyone out.
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