Posted on 01/04/2016 7:05:50 AM PST by Isara
DES MOINES, Iowa - Ted Cruz arrives Monday for his first Iowa trip of 2016, but he won't just be battling Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. He'll been fending off the state's influential corn lobby.
As Cruz kicks off a six-day bus tour across the state, his critics in the state's ethanol industry will be trailing close behind in a RV. They're hoping to highlight the Texas senator's opposition to a federal mandate that ethanol be mixed into gasoline at each of Cruz's planned 28 stops.
"We're going to be turning out all of our allies," said Eric Branstad, the son of longtime Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad and the state director for America's Renewable Future. The group supports the so-called the Renewable Fuel Standard, which Cruz has vocally opposed. "Iowans can't trust him and we have a duty to let them know why."
In addition to trailing Cruz's bus, the group is buying newspaper, radio and digital ads to shadow Cruz, and launching robo-calls to Iowans a month before the caucuses. At one point the group considered having someone dressed in a giant corn-on-the-cob costume stalk Cruz across the state. The idea was ultimately scrapped.
"We thought about bringing 'Captain Cornelius' but ultimately that's not something that we're doing," said spokeswoman Majda Sarkic of the mascot the corn-growing industry has used previously.
Other pro-ethanol forces have hit Cruz, as well. A group called the Iowa Progress Project, run by Nick Ryan, who also works for a super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee, has aired $200,000 in anti-Cruz TV and radio ads over the issue.
The fact that Cruz has topped recent Iowa polls despite his opposition to the renewable fuel standard has the corn-industry nervous. The issue has long been perceived as a third-rail of Iowa politics and the agriculture industry here wants to keep it that way.
In 2012, two politicians who supported the standard, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, finished atop the pack. Those who didn't, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, finished far behind. And in 2008, Barack Obama backed the standard in his primary against Hillary Clinton.
America's Renewable Future has vowed to mobilize tens of thousands of caucus-goers next month.
"Ted Cruz's policy in the White House would be as its always been for him - devastate Iowa's farmers and its economy in order to pad the pockets of the oil industry," Branstad said.
Cruz's allies have attacked the fuel standard as a handout for "Big Corn." "The Governor of Iowa is a Big Corn cheerleader, and his son is running a SuperPAC hitting Cruz for not bowing to worship Big Corn," Cruz supporter and former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli wrote to supporters last week. "Tsk, tsk."
He opposes all subsidies.
By replacing the corporate income tax with a Business Flat Tax, jobs and growth will return to American soil, and a chronic source of temptation to tinker with the tax code through corporate loopholes will be eliminated.
Yes. Trump may lose Iowa. Toss it.
Dear Iowans: if ethanol is so good, it doesn’t need to be mandatory or subsidized.
Me, too.
On the one hand, I like having the choice to consume corn squeezins or gasoline and I have little doubt the choice wouldn't be there had the gummint not promoted ethanol with subsidies. And I've also little doubt that Big Oil gets all manner of corporate welfare, too, even if it's not as obvious to me.
But, in the end, I don't like the government picking winners and losers, and IF Cruz is consistent on that, I'll keep my plan to vote for him at my precinct caucus four weeks from now.
(Contrary to what many FReepers seem to think, a LOT of my fellow Iowans HATE ethanol for various reasons. Me, I make my purchase based mostly on simple economics. And, when it's a toss-up, I've generally picked farmers over sheiks, although I'm lately giving more weight to the Dakotas, too.)
i thought trump wasn’t controlled by special interests?? what is the ethanol lobby except a multi_billion dollar special interest?? To be in favor of the ethanol “standard” is crony capitalism at its purest.
He’s used to screwing bond holders.
Yes definitely those two things...
But, in the end, I don't like the government picking winners and losers, and IF Cruz is consistent on that, I'll keep my plan to vote for him at my precinct caucus four weeks from now.
Yes there is the pure capitalist ideal there...
(Contrary to what many FReepers seem to think, a LOT of my fellow Iowans HATE ethanol for various reasons. Me, I make my purchase based mostly on simple economics. And, when it's a toss-up, I've generally picked farmers over sheiks, although I'm lately giving more weight to the Dakotas, too.)
You hit upon the fact that so many industries are subsidized, like wind power, coal, nukes, aviation, etc. All of those pale in comparison to the subsidization of voting Democrat. The welfare slice of the pie makes the military slice look small. So by the time you get down to ethanol the sliver of pie can only be seen with a microscope.
Why doesn't Cruz point out that gross subsidization? Who cares about nickels and dimes when we've spend trillions on welfare and are shipping in more demographic democrats every day.
Some of the business where I work is based upon the production of ethanol. Corn is now in the three dollars per bushel rather than seven or eight. That has quite an impact on the tractor stock I just bought.
Yes, many mixed feelings.
Two questions for you. First, if what you say is true and he is "owned" by big oil, then why does Cruz also oppose subsidies for big oil in addition to opposing subsidies for wind, solar and other forms of energy?
Second, even if what you say is true, does that make his opposition to mandates and subsidies for ethanol wrong? I remember not too long ago when the majority of conservatives opposed government subsidies in general, and for ethanol in particular. What happened that so many conservatives are now all in favor of ethanol mandates and subsidies?
see my 42
Lol, Catherine! is that a picture of you?? You may need a bigger bucket!
I just responded to jpsb on another thread in which he posted, “Take your meds.”
They’re running out of anti-Cruz steam, LOL.
LOL...I don’t think I can hold it all!
Ooooh, yeah, looks like Cruz has a big problem on his hands, so you better ping some more of the pack to gloat.
Post #41 has a pic of the protest crowd, LOL.
I could do the anti-Cruz thing (like yall do the anti-Trump thing 24/7), there is lots of material for me to work with. But I do not think bashing Cruz helps Trump so unless I come across blatant lies I try not to get into a pissing contest with the Cruz bots here. Trump is going to need their votes in Nov so there really is no point in needlessly pissing them off.
Have no fear. I will not vote for trump in November, or at any time.
Trump won’t be the nominee, but if he were, I would never vote for him. And I’ll speak nothing but the truth about that progressive.
Here's another take from WSJ.
Sen. Ted Cruz's 16% business flat tax (A Simple Flat Tax for Economic Growth, op-ed, Oct. 29) will put my small temporary-staffing company out of business. Instead of a gross profit of $300,000, under his plan I would lose in excess of $200,000 after taxes.
Consider the following figures from my 2014 financials: revenue of $4.5 million, payroll of $3 million and gross profit of $300,000. I certainly appreciate the elimination of the corporate income tax. And I acknowledge that the elimination of the payroll tax will save me $200,000 (7% of a $3 million payroll), which would have increased my 2014 gross profit to $500,000. But the 16% gross receipts tax of $720,000 (16% of $4.5 million) is a killer and would have resulted in a 2014 after-tax loss of $220,000 ($720,000 minus $500,000). Simply put, a tax on business revenue, irrespective of profitability, is death to the small-margin service industry.
John Masters Cincinnati
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