Free Republic

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., probably didn't have the best birthday this year. A Kansas City Star report on Tuesday revealed that a whole lot of federal dollars have been flowing to businesses tied to the senator's husband since she took office in 2007. According to the report, more than $131 million in federal subsidies have been routed to companies McCaskill's husband, Joseph Shepard, has invested in since she entered the Senate. "Based on the data, it appears that a growing percentage of Shepard’s personal earnings come from new businesses he has invested in that are receiving federal awards, primarily rural...

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will grant up to $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs in the ongoing trade fight with China and other American trading partners. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said that the plan, which will provide direct assistance and other temporary relief for farmers through the USDA’s commodity program, is meant as a stopgap to give Trump time to negotiate a long-term policy with China, the European Union and others. The plan was announced as Trump spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, where he...

WASHINGTON — The government announced a $12 billion plan Tuesday to assist farmers who have been hurt by President Donald Trump's trade disputes with China and other trading partners. The plan focuses on Midwest soybean producers and others targeted by retaliatory measures. The Agriculture Department said the proposal would include direct assistance for farmers, purchases of excess crops and trade promotion activities aimed at building new export markets. Officials said the plan would not require congressional approval and would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices. "This is a short-term solution that...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tells @burgessev and me outside GOP lunch that $12 billion in trade assistance to farmers from Trump administration "this is becoming more and more like a Soviet-type of economy here" with "commissars" sprinkling around benefits.

The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday plans to announce a $12 billion package of emergency aid for farmers caught in the midst of President Trump’s escalating trade war, two people briefed on the plan said, the latest sign that growing tensions between the United States and other countries will not end soon. Trump ordered Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to prepare a range of options several months ago, amid complaints from farmers that their products faced retaliatory tariffs from China and other countries. The new package of government assistance funds will be announced Tuesday and is expected to go into effect...

Congress created the usual special interest frenzy with its latest iteration of the Farm Bill. Agricultural subsidies are one of the most important examples of corporate welfare, money handed out to businesses based on political connections. Business plays a vital role in a free market. In real capitalism there are no guaranteed profits. But corporate welfare eliminates this handicap for the well-connected. Business subsidies that allow politicians to channel economic resources toward their preferred ends distort investment and trade. Moreover, turning government into an engine of illicit profit encourages what economists call rent-seeking. Well-organized special interests usually triumph over the...

SCHUMER WARNS: FUNDING AT RISK FOR CRITICAL AND COST-EFFECTIVE FARM-SAFETY PROGRAM TO HELP PREVENT DEADLY TRACTOR ROLLOVERS; SENATOR LAUNCHES NEW PUSH ON CDC TO FUND TRACTOR ROLLOVER PROTECTION PROGRAM AND KEEP IT RUNNING AT FULL SPEED The Federally-Funded Northeast Center For Occupational Safety And Health For Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (NEC) Provides Farmers With Important Resources, Like Special 1-800 Safety Number, Access To Farm-Safety Experts And Information On Next-Gen Farm Safety Equipment Like Tractor Rollover Bars NEC’s Research Led To National ROPS – Rollover Bar – Rebate Program, But Senator Says Lack Of Available Grants Puts ROPS Program At Risk Schumer: Any...

The OSBI has found new evidence linking a wind energy group to the political consultant who had a state legislator tracked, The Oklahoman has learned. "It's pretty obvious," Rep. Mark McBride said of the evidence from the subpoenaed phone records of Texas political consultant George C. Shipley. McBride, R-Moore, has blamed the wind industry ever since finding a GPS tracker on his pickup the evening of Dec. 4. He was told about the new evidence Thursday when a special agent from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reinterviewed him. After going through the phone records, they have matched phone calls...

A new attack ad against DeSantis has links to the bare knuckled political operative -------------snip--------------- Today an outfit called National Liberty Federation began airing about $290,000 in ads on radio and Fox News TV stations across Florida hammering Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis: -------snip--------- The National Liberty Federation is run by a Palm Beach County resident named Everett Wilkinson, who used to call the group the South Florida Tea Party. Wilkinson for years has worked closely with Roger Stone, hosting a 2011 Boca Raton Trump rally that served as a harbinger of his presidential campaign, vocally supporting more casinos in...

Asia needs more transport infrastructure. More than the state, which finances the lion's share, can fund. So what more can be done to bring in increased private capital, when investors have so far been mostly disappointed by the returns? Is there a way of breathing new life into the public private partnership (PPP), the most common vehicle for private infrastructure investment? We think so. Governments need to offer private sector investors more than they can hope to earn from ticket sales on railways or motorway tolls. They should consider sharing the extra tax revenues generated from the increased economic activity...

As part of his ongoing war against the ethanol industry, Senator Ted Cruz traveled to Philadelphia this week to meet with oil refinery workers who claim to be facing layoffs and financial ruin due to the federal mandated Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The now-bankrupt refinery, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, has argued that the cause of its financial problems are renewable identification numbers, or RINs, federal credits that refineries must purchase if they are unable to blend ethanol with gasoline as federal law requires. Credit prices fluctuate and in the past year, have risen from a few cents to nearly $1.40 apiece....

Gwen Hurd got the letter just before her shift at the outlet mall. Her health insurance company informed her that coverage for her family of three, purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, would cost almost 60 percent more this year — $1,200 a month. She and her husband, a contractor, found a less expensive plan, but at $928 a month, it meant giving up date nights and saving for their future. Worse, the new policy required them to spend more than $6,000 per person before it covered much of anything. “It seems to me that people who earn nothing...

The IRS overpaid nearly $3.5 billion in Obamacare tax credits last year that it cannot recoup because of constraints built into the program, frustrating Republicans who have failed to repeal the health care law but say that money could have been spent on programs for veterans or infrastructure. A Treasury watchdog said the government paid out roughly $24 billion in Obamacare subsidies in the heart of the 2017 tax-filing season, with $5.8 billion in overages. Of that, just $2.3 billion was clawed back, leaving $3.5 billion in outstanding excess payments. “The overpayments were that much?” said Rep. Phil Roe, Tennessee...

In a book that was long in the works, George Mason University economics professor Bryan Caplan explains, as his subtitle reads, “why the education system is a waste of time and money.” He is emphatically not against people learning skills and knowledge, but argues that our current system of education does a poor job of that, and at inordinate cost. He would like to see government subsidies for education stopped. Caplan puts his case starkly: “Most critics of our education system… miss what I see as its supreme defect: there’s way too much education. Typical students burn thousands of hours...

Amazon released its short list of contenders for its second-headquarters project on Thursday, and the news was bad. Whether it was worse for the hundreds of communities left out of the running or for the 20 so-called finalists is an open question. Judging from the willingness of some remaining contenders to endow one of the world's richest companies with billions in handouts, we're going with the latter. As we've been reporting since September, when the Seattle-based online retailer and tech giant announced plans to locate a $5-billion, 50,000-employee complex as its second headquarters somewhere in North America, offering tax abatements...

President Donald Trump will meet with a group of Republican lawmakers Thursday to discuss ways of addressing problems oil refiners have with the EPA’s biofuels mandate. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is among nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers prepared to confront Trump over his administration’s refusal to ratchet down the biofuel standard. They want to find a way to lessen the impact the standards have on oil refiners. “President Trump will meet with senators today to discuss his commitment to the Renewable Fuel Standard and how to effectively address the program’s impact on independent refiners,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said...

It looks like Congress is taking steps to end some of the special tax breaks and subsidies for major sports leagues in its tax reform package. Professional sports leagues like the NFL enjoy tax exemptions on the municipal bonds that are used to build their stadiums. A provision in Sec. 3604 eliminates this perk. If sports teams want to build new stadiums, they’re now going to pay federal taxes to do it.

Greetings to you, with my hope that you are doing well! According to public records, most of you are. That’s good! The whole U.S. produces somewhere around 15 billion bushels (BB) of corn a year at a rate of ca. 145 bushels per acre. Roughly, that’s 1/3 of the entire world production. Nearly 1/3 of the entire U.S. production comes from Iowa (2.7 BB), Illinois (2.3 BB), Nebraska (1.7 BB), Minnesota (1.5 BB), and Indiana (0.9 BB). Of that bountiful harvest, in the order of 25% are being converted via fermentation and distillation into ethanol, resulting in ~2.9 gallons of...

SHIFT IN THOUGHT   In a world awash in red ink, Argentina’s reforms since 2015 show how attitudes can shift toward excessive debt. The world’s largest economies are awash in red ink, the International Monetary Fund reported in October. And they are hard-pressed to service their debts, which on average amount to more than twice their domestic output. China accounts for much of this global rise in debt. After a leadership reshuffle this week, Beijing may start to finally tackle the problem. But one country in particular, Argentina, has shown how to change attitudes and turn around an unhealthy dependence...

Users of the Dulles Toll Road can expect to pay more in 2019, according to a 2018 draft budget presented to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board today.No increase from the $3.50 toll ($2.50 at the plaza and $1 at the ramp) is planned in 2018; however, it is expected to jump to $4.75 the following year. Numbers presented by the Board’s Finance Committee show that is only the beginning of the hikes.In 2023, the toll is projected to go up to $6. Additional jumps of $1.25 or more are projected every five years for the following two decades, resulting...