Posted on 05/01/2002 11:03:18 PM PDT by edsheppa
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:46:29 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
That great rooting, snooting noise you hear in the distance, dear taxpayers, is the sound of election-year, farm-state politics rolling out of the U.S. Congress. We all know democracy isn't cheap, but this is ridiculous.
Senate and House conferees this week unveiled their final farm bill, a 10-year, $173.5 billion bucket of slop that has even Washington agog. By the time all the handouts and payoffs were complete, the well-fed conferees had agreed to increase agricultural spending by no less than 70%. This alone amounts to one of the greatest urban-to-rural wealth transfers in history, a sort of Farm Belt Great Society.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
And there is the main problem. Ted Turner is the top #3rd or 4th recipient of subsidies. Something is very wrong here. The small farmer just gets screwed in the process and fat cats collect.
Now that Congress has us all paying higher prices for steel products, wood products, and farm products, they are considering having taxpayers fund steelworker pensions and insurance coverage of terrorist attacks -- and the President is joining in on this gluttony!
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