Posted on 01/26/2016 6:50:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Ted Cruz has dared to provoke the ire of one of the most ruthless and vengeful political forces on the planet, and it's not Donald Trump. The Texas senator has crossed the ethanol industry in Iowa, which is a little like getting on the wrong side of the Catholic Church in Vatican City.
Cruz's core theme is fighting the "Washington cartel," which would be a lot easier if its tentacles didn't extend all the way into the state crucial to Cruz's presidential hopes.
Other Republicans have refused to bow and scrape before the ethanol industry -- John McCain wouldn't do it in 2000, but he didn't compete in Iowa. Cruz, in contrast, has staked an enormous amount there. His campaign could have been engineered in a lab for Iowa: He is an evangelical who is a hard-liner on immigration and has organized relentlessly on the ground. The only dissonant note is his opposition to the so-called Renewable Fuel Standard that is a government prop for the industry. Cruz's stand against it is an act of reckless courage.
The Renewable Fuel Standard requires that ethanol is blended into the nation's gasoline, and in ever-increasing amounts. The mandate increases the price of gas while doing nothing for the environment. Even former boosters like Al Gore have given up on ethanol as a green wonder fuel. It does much less than advertised to reduce carbon emissions once the entire process of producing it is taken into account.
The economic and environmental effects are beside the point, though. Ethanol gobbles up 40 percent of the corn supply, and so the mandate is beloved by agricultural interests. Iowa is the nation's top corn-producing state and has a political trump card. To paraphrase the Paul Harvey Super Bowl ad from a couple of years back, the ethanol mandate can't survive on the merits, "So God created the Iowa caucuses."
Possession of the first contest on the presidential-nomination calendar gives Iowa unparalleled power to make presidential candidates prostitute themselves to King Corn. Almost all of them are happy to do it, except for Ted Cruz, who insists -- and this is radical for Iowa -- that the mandate be phased out in 2022, or midway through his prospective second term.
The ethanol machine, under the auspices of America's Renewable Future, has done everything to dog Cruz short of declaring him wanted for grave offenses against Iowa's favorite boondoggle. The group is headed by Eric Branstad, whose dad happens to be Iowa's governor-for-life, Terry Branstad, now on his sixth term. Governor Branstad recently baldly stated that he wants Cruz defeated. This is a little like the papal bull issued against Queen Elizabeth in 1570 excommunicating her from the Catholic Church and implicitly sanctioning attempts on her life. Branstad wants Cruz dead, and doesn't particularly care who does the deed.
Enter Donald Trump, the political neophyte and alleged outsider who has a career politician's instinct for the shameless and self-abasing pander. Trump has done everything but drink pints of ethanol on the stump and promise to open up his own beautiful, gold-plated, Trump-branded, ethanol production plants. For Trump, there is nothing wrong with the ethanol mandate that can't be cured by making it bigger and better. Trump is supposed to be the fearless truth-teller and a disruptor of the political system, but he is fearlessly telling people what they want to hear and promising to protect a cozy special-interest arrangement.
On ethanol, it is Cruz who is a threat to the status quo. Ethanol's political hold has been slipping. A tax credit for the industry and a tariff protecting it ended a few years ago. Now, it is faced with the prospect of a candidate who could win the Iowa caucuses while defying King Corn. If the proponents of ethanol have their way -- to borrow from a phrase associated with the oil industry they so hate -- there will be blood.
-- Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.
Too late, Rich. Your credibility is gone. And I will never click on an NR link again. Ever.
SOMEBODY has to be actually conservative.
Surprisingly good article. Worth a click.
The farm subsidies have to go period. It’s not going to family farms, but big Agribusinesses.
No more corporate welfare!
Corn is food and drink, not fuel. Use it as such.
Not everyone in Iowa is in love with ethanol.
Not even all corn farmers...
Sounds like a Cruz endorsement from NRO. Well done. Ted.
If Trump will compromise conservative principles on a small issue like this, why should we trust him on big issues?
Especially drink.
Ted Cruz is owned by Goldman Sachs, others on Wall Street and a number of private equity and hedge fund types. These are the ones we bailed out with TARP. Cruz actually went into the private equity business with his Harvard room mate and a few Jamaicans. Cruz envisioned governments including the US having funds (taxpayer funds) invested in their corp. so they could manipulate stock prices. Looks like he and his pal wanted to be the Republican Soros.
It’s an endorsement against ethanol, but since Trump’s OK with that cronyism, I’m sure you’re for it.
Maybe a little. But, unlike Iowa, where there are a LOT of ethanol skeptics, I doubt you'll find any non-Catholics in Vatican City (I could be wrong).
I realize that.
Dude, try to stay on topic. Everyone on FR knows you hate everything about Cruz. We get it. This thread is about ethanol and the candidates’ stand. So Cruz went into business, isn’t that what makes Trump so wonderfully magnificent?
You are on every thread posting this same blurb. Time for some new material.
RE: Ted Cruz is owned by Goldman Sachs, others on Wall Street and a number of private equity and hedge fund types.
Can you cite for me any legislation, any work he has done as Senator that shows he actually peddled his influence in favor of Goldman Sachs?
The ethanol industry is peanuts next to Cruz’s primary
backers.
Trump supported bailouts.
Cruz opposed them.
I know that. I just do not want to get in an argument with anybody.
I am in much too good a mood about the poll results and what I suspect is the coming Trump Triumph in Iowa.
What is the point of arguing and getting in a bad mood?
Maybe a little. But, unlike Iowa, where there are a LOT of ethanol skeptics, I doubt you’ll find any non-Catholics in Vatican City (I could be wrong)
Kind of like you wouldn’t expect to find unpatriotic people in the White House.
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