Posted on 12/11/2015 11:57:00 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Donald Trump attacked Ted Cruz for not supporting ethanol subsidies. He said in Iowa on Friday, "Oil companies give him a lot of money, so he's for oil."
The thing about oil and gas is, it doesn't require big subsidies, because it's the cheapest and most efficient form of fuel for cars. Ethanol, on the other hand, does require big government subsidies, because it is highly uneconomical. Ethanol is much more expensive than oil and gas and, gallon for gallon, produces much less energy than gasoline. That's why the government has to hand over billions in subsidies to big agri-businesses to keep it going. And that's also why the government has to force oil companies to blend ethanol in with their fuels. Because without government coercion, oil companies wouldn't do it, and the price of gasoline would be substantially lower than it is now.
Additionally, ethanol actually acts as a corrosive on car engines. It slowly degrades car parts over time.
But the worst thing about ethanol is that not only does it require taxpayer subsidies, and not only does it raise the price of blended gas, but it also raises the price of many different kinds of foods. Ethanol is made with corn - a lot of it. And when a lot of corn production is diverted to ethanol, there is less corn available to use for food. Corn is heavily used as a sweetener in many food products. By raising the price of corn, the price of many different kinds of foods are raised.
That is what subsidizing ethanol gives us. That is what Donald Trump is for and Ted Cruz is against. Ted Cruz is starting to lead in some Iowa polls, and he's doing it without this kind of pandering...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I heard him say he supported Iowa’s ethanol industry. He did not specifically mention government subsidies. He appeared to leave an opening for free market support for the ethanol industry.
Well, I’m only 29, but I’ve got eyes and ears and brains as well. And here’s how I’m seeing it.
Both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are campaigning on conservatism. As far as I can tell, both of them are being truthful. If they’re NOT being truthful, then it doesn’t matter whether or not one or the other gets in office, because we’re boned either way. If both are truthful, then it’s best to go with the one who has the most political capital. Cruz, with a few exceptions, has a good conservative record. And I have projected my most cynical thoughts onto Trump’s campaign and I honestly can’t see why he would lie through his teeth just to be President, especially while hawking a conservative platform. If he wanted to be President that badly, he could just run with the establishment dogs and it would be so much easier to dupe enough of the squishes into voting for him to get in AND get a prime feeding station at the taxpayer trough. By running as a conservative, he is deliberately setting himself against the entire system. If he just wanted power, I can’t see why he’d do that.
But ultimately, getting back to ethanol, they’re two different people and they will support different things. Some things about Cruz’s platform I like and some I don’t like. Some things about Trump’s platform I like and some I don’t like. But overall, that’s a GOOD thing. Yes, I’m saying that it’s a good thing that Trump, if elected, is probably going to do things that I don’t like. Same with Cruz. And that’s because neither of them are me. If he, either he, was promising everything to me, then I’d be worried because either A: They’re probably pandering for votes, or B: I’m projecting a messiah image onto him, and we saw with Obama what THAT turns into.
And finally, as a closing thought, ethanol isn’t at all important in this election, and I say that as a native Iowan—even though I haven’t lived there in a while. I find myself quite annoyed with these threads, to be honest, because every one of them seems to have turned into little more than, ‘Your guy sucks! And is probably a vampire robot clone of Hitler! So nanny nanny boo boo stick your head in doo-doo!’
Yeah, and your guy is robo-mecha-Hitler, so nyah nyah!
I took it a bit differently...
Many trump supporter’s seem to intuitively know that Cruz is a true conservative and they agree with most if not all of his positions because they are conservatives as well.
Yet they support Trump, and relentlessly defend him against anyone. Since this is a conservative forum they are is a bit of a pickle, as they say.
So that is where the Trump/Cruz ticket comes into play. It helps them to continue on defending Trump’s comments when he inadvertently crosses the lines of reality. They can say.......everyone does that, or it does not matter.
I think he was thinking of that Trump/Cruz ticket. I don’t know what the future holds, but Cruz is not running for VP. I would rather see him on the Supreme Court or to remain in the Senate or as Attorney General should he lose this contest.
If the roles were reversed, I wonder what job Trump would or could do?
Ethanol has always had a free market opportunity. But like solar, wind, and even geo thermal, the government is required to facilitate it. It cannot be built or survive on it’s own merits because it has no merits.
Ethanol from corn or anything else, cannot stand on it’s own two feet. The government has to crate a market for it by mandating it’s use, and then it must subsidize it’s infrastructure and profit margins.
It’s a classic case of crony capitalism at it’s worst.
Re read your article, then re read my post.
Besides the overt subsidies there is a mandate that has the same effect as a a subsidy, and Trump has said he doesn’t want to remove that.
Ethanol has several applications besides automobile fuel. It is used in burners and heaters, perfumes and more. It has a place in the free market. If they cannot compete in the auto fuel market farmers can go back to selling corn.
You accused me of “helping the media distort the truth.”
I asked you, “Where?”
Where have I distorted the truth?
Yeah, and your point is ... ?
The article points out that the ethanol industry exists because of government coercion in the form of subsidies. The oil industry can get along on its own without them.
Supporting ethanol is dumb and pro-government.
What “rhetoric”? Please point it out.
Excuse me, but perhaps you aren't up on current events. In fact, Trump has used a couple of twitter posts to egg it on.
Time to choose one, now. We wish we could have both ... we only get one, and one is much better than the other. It's an easy choice.
Especially over this ethanol throw away issue.
I like trump and i like cruz. Doesn't mean i lose my mind if they bicker a little bit.
Let's be adults here.
Oil companies produce gas and oil independent of subsidies, and make a profit. Ethanol is dependent on subsidies to exist at all because it is a coerced "industry" via government regulation.
If Trump "supports" ethanol, he necessarily supports subsidies.
We have to choose one, NOW. One of them, Trump, has serious flaws, to put it mildly.
The other, Cruz, has far fewer and smaller flaws and a history of being what he says he is now.
The only thing I am interested in doing is convincing people that Cruz is the best choice and to recognize it now. If that entails reminding people again and again about Trump facts that indicate a 26-year leftist-moderate pro-government history with three party switches and high praise for both Clintons at the same time he praised John McCain --
-- if my doing so is perceived as meaning that I'm "with the media," then it means someone is desperate to avoid looking truth eye to eye: Trump is a media manufactured "personal brand" whose billionaire patriotism makes him a presidential candidate.
That's all ya got.
Reading.
Try it sometime.
Domestically produced ethanol as fuel replaces imported oil and a sizable portion of the US trade deficit is attributable to imported oil.
At the time(2007), the US was importing 70% of her oil and the price of oil had tripled.
This is the same reason that Brazil went the ethanol route. Back in the 1970s, the price of oil tripled so Brazil developed their ethanol industry rather than pay the rising cost of imported oil.
Now, we are importing slightly less than half of our oil and the price has collapsed.
As far as how it benefits producers, there are also programs in place to benefit fuel made from wood(2008). The members of Congress from the ag states and the timber states band together to protect these benefits
Trump didn’t have to say anything about subsidies. If you support the ethanol industry, you necessarily support subsidies.
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