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Farm Bill
As reported in the ISJ, congress has just spent a super-massive 290 billion clams on a new farm/nutrition/bioenergy bill. This really shows our government operating at its worst in modern times. The bill is so fiscally irresponsible, so full of pork, so full of bail-outs and entitlements, so full of anti-competition, so full of waste, so full of business-as-usual-spend-like-there's-no-tomorrow antics. This bill is really really bad, and the president is powerless to stop it, despite a vow to veto.
This is proof that almost nobody is really serious about fiscal responsibility. Larry Craig, Mike Crapo, Mike Simpson, and Bill Sali, who all act as Idaho's representation in congress, all voted for this bill. I can't think of anybody who gets on his soap box more than Craig when it comes to preaching about balancing the budget. All the major presidential candidates failed to vote at all on this legislation; how convenient. Ron Paul, to his credit, actually voted against the bill. Republicans accuse democrats of being spend happy. Democrats accuse Republicans of being spend happy. They're both correct about the other, and the hypocrisy runs deep. 2 comments from 2 users
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posted by
aalder
on May 18, 2008 at 12:40 PM
posted by
Ike
on May 19, 2008 at 01:47 AM
Back onto subject: I haven't looked at the bill line by line because it's just too big. But there are several things I know from research I've done: The bill extends subsidies for corn ethanol, which is bad for the environment, bad for the economy, bad for working class, etc etc. Ethanol from corn is just plain bad in countless different ways but congress has decided we need more of it. The bill gives subsidies to huge corporate farms that are already making money out their ears. Experts in agriculture (non politicians) in both liberal and conservative camps fully acknowledge the egregiousness of subsidizing the farm industry as a whole. This bill only makes it worse. The bill strengthens other welfare related items like food stamps. This discourages individual responsibility and initiative, while making government bigger and our economy more hamstrung by entitlement spending. Now these are only some of the issues that this bill covers. The main overarching argument against this bill is also the most basic: The bill cost $290 billion, with a range of spending expenditures over a range of different issues. Bills like this can't help but come with a load of pork on board. To break up the bill and focus on individual issues allowing for more concise spending is much wiser. Otherwise, you have this massive "take it or leave it" bill that allows for all sorts of garbage to make its way in. The fact that this comes out on an election year is all too coincidental. Researching the bill is rather easy. Any search engine will give you a ton of information from several reputable web sites. What can we do to stop this kind of crud from going on? I suppose the only answer I have is to keep this in mind when you vote this November. To their credit, both Obama and McCain have signed pledges against pork spending. We'll see if they really mean it.
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