Posted on 11/18/2010 9:24:05 PM PST by trappedincanuckistan
The “bipartisan White House deficit reduction panel” chimed in with a 50-page draft proposal, offering suggestions for $3.8 trillion in future budgetary savings. The proposal targets $100 billion in Defense Department weapons programs, healthcare benefits and overseas bases. It also proposes a $13-billion cutback in the federal workforce and lining out $400 million in unnecessary printing costs. And yet, amazingly, not even this independent commission was willing to eliminate the $6-billion sacred cow of annual ethanol subsidies. The current 45-cents-per-gallon tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline automatically expires December 31, as does the 54-cents-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. So all senators and congressmen need to do is nothing, and beleaguered taxpayers will save six billion bucks.
We can only hope. Unfortunately, renewable fuel lobbyists will try to use the lame duck session to perpetuate the special treatment. The National Corn Growers Association, Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, ADM and POET ethanol count as friends incoming House Speaker John Boehner, incoming House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, other influential Republicans and scores of prominent Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
If we are going to subsidize an industry, lets at least put it to a good use.
End the sugar tariffs.
Oh No! More FarmAid concerts. lol.
Enthanol = Starving the world so morons can “feel green”.
All cars I have had get less milage on this garbage concoction.
“All cars I have had get less milage on this garbage concoction.”
And it can ruin engines.....
You know it’s bad when even the Greens want no part of it.
There was a recent thread on FR that mentioned Japan’s huge farm subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products. You’re correct that if you’re gonna subsidize something, let it be for a good cause, in this case protecting Japanese family farms from being turned into agribusinesses like what happened in the Midwest.
“End the sugar tariffs”
Totally. I never understood the reason for them. We don’t grow much sugar in the US, so what are those tariffs protecting?
The Fanjul brothers from Florida.
“You know it’s bad when even the Greens want no part of it”
Heck, even liberal Time Magazine has criticized ethanol for using a valuable food crop.
But lets be honest. Most congressmen end up diverting subsidies or other taxpayer money to their friends, donors, and to pet projects of theirs. I don’t think most of us on FR could resist the temptation (if we were elected to Congress) to give Federal money to some person/company/cause we like.
I mean, we’re only human. Right?
There is also the problem that these huge farms have from wheat, soybeans, and other staple food items to corn, to cash in on the subsidy gravytrain. Also the price of any prodcut that contains corn (1,000s of them) has gone up greatly. As corn syup is used for almost all sweetners in processed goods, instead of cane sugar we have seen huge increases in prices.
Also true. Subsidies don’t only go to family farms, they go to agribusinesses who have no need of them.
Corn syrup really doesn’t cut it compared to real sugar, as any soft drink expert will tell you.
ethanol.
better than oil from the middle east
“ethanol. better than oil from the middle east”
Really? Not.
” I don’t think most of us on FR could resist the temptation (if we were elected to Congress) to give Federal money to some person/company/cause we like.
I mean, we’re only human. Right?”
Of course we’d all like to think that isn’t the case but that was one of the founders most significant ideas for small government. They KNEW people are rationally self-interested and so as to combat that, they limited the amount of gov’t. Which is why we have to roll things back Constitutionally. The Public Choice School of economics has it right.
When you give a gun (a virtual monopoly of force) to gov’t for the protection of your rights, then you better make sure they understand, they can’t use that gun to hunt for themselves or to turn it on you when you catch them at it. That’s the reason for the 2nd amendment.
“Of course we’d all like to think that isn’t the case but that was one of the founders most significant ideas for small government. They KNEW people are rationally self-interested and so as to combat that, they limited the amount of gov’t. Which is why we have to roll things back Constitutionally. The Public Choice School of economics has it right.”
Sure and there are a whole pile of Federal agencies that we could do away with (DHS and DHUD are two of my favorites for the chopping block).
Lord knows, I’d find it hard to resist giving money to various interests of mine, including some you might roll your eyes at. But then, I’d probably find a lot of your interests silly.
Actually, the real problem today isn’t so much the corruption in Congress, it’s the fact that a great many of them seem to be working for foreign interests. What kind of sane government would be taking the side of illegal immigrants over citizens trying to defend themselves?
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