Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Republicans Demand Welfare For Corporate Factory Farms

By Republican standards, a worthy farm subsidy recipient -- not your typical family farm :: The Archer Daniels Midland Co. co-generation facility in Clinton, Iowa.photo: Quad City Business Joural
Rugged Republican "individualists" once again insist that overfed, under-taxed corporate executives and shareholders, like Archer Daniels Midland's (see: Cato Institute analysis of ADM's dependance on subsidies), require public assistance to maintain their high living standard:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans have quietly maneuvered to prevent a House spending bill from chipping away at federal farm subsidies, instead forging ahead with much larger cuts to domestic and international food aid.
The GOP move will probably prevent up to $167 million in cuts in direct payments to farmers, including some of the nation's wealthiest. The maneuver, along with the Senate's refusal Tuesday to end a $5 billion annual tax subsidy for ethanol-gasoline blends, illustrates just how difficult it will be for Congress to come up with even a fraction of the trillions in budget savings over the next decade that Republicans have promised.
Meanwhile, the annual bill to pay for food and farm programs next year would cut food aid for low-income mothers and children by $685 million, about 10 percent below this year's budget.
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read more: Republicans dodge farm subsidy cuts :: AP

2 comments:

  1. I wish someone would take each of those jerks out of the rich homes and put them on the street with someone who lost their job and became homeless. Someone who was an upstanding citizen and lost it all. To see families and children and elderly people. To see how many of us our hungry and without adaquet shelter. I (used to be homeless) have a full time job making $10/hr which used to be a lot but now that I have a 2 yr old son and am 23 with a 2bdrm apartment and a car, no cable no internet no amenidies; I a well below the poverty line. I should be on disability but it doesn't pay enough so I work through sever pain which only makes the pain worse. I receive Foodshare, WIC, Badgercare (Title 19/State insurance), and go to the food pantries. I also recieve government aid to pay for child care while I am at work. Without one, let alone ALL of these programs my son and I would be lucky if we had a small studio apartment to live in and food on our plates. My live in boyfriend works but he only makes minimum wage on the border between part and full time.

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  2. AppleJack: for what it is worth, if you haven't all ready done it, go to (www.congress.org), enter your zip code over on the right, under "Get Involved," get links to your Representatives in Congress, and put what you just posted here in an e-mail to them. And then do it again next week. And the next. Dog 'em!

    They will listen if enough people nag them. It won't change your life right now, but you will change the world a little and you will know you did.

    Thanks for the comment. I wish those jerks were on the street, too, believe me. (And in Iraq or Afghanistan where they send other people's kids.) Peace.

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