“Iowa Farmer Today” Decision time draws near - December 29, 2011:
“The Iowa Corn Growers Association sent questionnaires to the Republicans involved in this year’s caucuses, then issued grades on how it judged those candidates as part of its Iowa Corn Caucus.
The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) took a different approach, offering its members the chance to listen in on teleconferences with some of the candidates and ask questions.
“We call that our town-hall conference call,” explains Mark Jackson, ISA president-elect. “We want to give people the opportunity to hear the candidates talk about agricultural issues.”
The first of those calls came in early December with former Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich. More than 3,000 people listened in.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry was the subject of another call.
The report cards issued by the corn growers spotlighted the differences between some of the candidates.
For example, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, earned a “D” from the group, and U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., earned a “D+” while Gingrich earned an “A” and Rick Santorum earned an “A-.”
President Barack Obama earned a “B” as did former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Perry earned a “C-.” Herman Cain, who has since dropped out of the race, earned a “D.”
“That’s stirred a little controversy,” Jackson says of the corn caucus ratings. “And, that’s good.”
The caucuses are a longtime Iowa tradition. They first gained some notoriety in 1972, when the Democrats changed their candidate selection process to more emphasis on primaries and caucuses and less on the convention.
Jimmy Carter came to the state early before the 1976 election and used it as a springboard to snaring the Democratic nomination.
………….Most of the Republicans in the field have pledged to reduce the regulatory burden on business. Many have pledged to either lower taxes or not to raise taxes.
Several have claimed they would close various departments of the government.
A few have offered support for ethanol, biodiesel and wind energy, all of which have been rapidly growing segments of Iowa’s economy.
But, others have said they would eliminate all incentives for those types of energy, often arguing there should be no incentives at all, and government should remove itself from the process, an argument that raises the ire of many farm leaders.
Those farm leaders have said there is no such thing as a level playing field in the energy business and add the government long has supported the oil industry.”
So, then Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney have all taken positions on the ethanol issue diametrically opposed to the Republican Party Platform.
Perry came down hard on getting rid of the ridiculous EPA regs and other things.
Those farm leaders have said there is no such thing as a level playing field in the energy business and add the government long has supported the oil industry.”
• natural gas - 25 cents per megawatt hour of electricity produced
• Coal - 44 cents per megawatt hour
• Nuclear $1.59 per megawatt hour
• Wind Energy $23.37 per megawatt hour
• Solar Energy $24.34 per megawatt hour
• Biofuels $1.78 per gal
These numbers do not include the additional subsidies we taxpayers have been compelled to pay for wind, solar and biofuels through the stimulus plan
Oil was not reported in these numbers since oil is hardly a factor in electricity production. However, oil benefits from a variety of tax subsidies for dry well expenses and royalty holidays dating from the $10-a-barrel oil days of the late 1990s, which the administration promises to rescind.
Just one more reason why the nominee should be chosen by convention and the primaries and caucuses relegated to what they really are: circus sideshows that you attend for amusement only.
Case in point is the focus of Iowa farmers on keeping their own unfair, uneconomic, undeserved subsidies - most of the rest of the country suffers for these subsidies and allowing Iowa farmers to decide for the rest of us who the nominee is going to be essentially means that the favored nominee is going to be representative only of Iowa, not most of the rest of the country.
What a crying shame.