This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Guest Post: How Many Senators Does It Take To Screw A Taxpayer?
Submitted by Jim Quinn
How Many Senators Does It Take To Screw A Taxpayer?
“Today, the government decides and they misdirect the investment
to their friends in the corn industry or the food industry. Think how
many taxpayer dollars have been spent on corn [for ethanol], and there’s
nobody now really defending that as an efficient way to create diesel
fuel or ethanol. The money is spent for political reasons and not for
economic reasons. It’s the worst way in the world to try to develop an
alternative fuel.” - Ron Paul
When bipartisanship breaks out in Washington DC, check to make sure
your wallet is still in your pocket. Every time you fill up your car
this winter you are participating in the biggest taxpayer swindle in
history. Forcing consumers to use domestically produced ethanol is one
of the single biggest boondoggles ever committed by the corrupt
brainless twits in Washington DC. Ethanol prices have soared 30% in the
last year as the supplies of corn have plunged. Only a policy created in
Washington DC could drive up the prices of gasoline and food, with the
added benefits of costing the American taxpayer billions in tax
subsidies and killing people in 3rd world countries.
The grand lame duck Congress tax compromise extended a 45-cent
incentive to ethanol refiners for each gallon of the fuel blended with
gasoline and renewed a 54-cent tariff on Brazilian imports. The
extension of these subsidies, besides costing American taxpayers $6
billion per year, has the added benefit of driving up food costs across
the globe, causing food riots in Tunisia, and resulting in the starving
of poor peasants throughout the world. This taxpayer boondoggle is a
real feather in the cap of that fiscally conservative curmudgeon Senator
Charley Grassley. He was joined in this noble effort by another fiscal
conservative, presidential hopeful John Thune. It seems these guys hate
wasteful spending, except when it benefits their states. The
bipartisanship in this effort was truly touching, as Democrats Kent
Conrad and Tom Harkin also brought home the pork for their states.
A bipartisan group of 15 senators signed a letter in late November
demanding an extension of U.S. ethanol subsidies. I wonder if the fact
they have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions during the past six years from pro-ethanol companies and
interest groups like ADM, Monsanto, the National Corn Growers
Association, and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association had anything to do
with this demand. You can always count on a Senator to do what’s best
for his re-election campaign rather than what is best for the country.
These symbols of political integrity will always spout the standard
talking points:
demanding an extension of U.S. ethanol subsidies. I wonder if the fact
they have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions during the past six years from pro-ethanol companies and
interest groups like ADM, Monsanto, the National Corn Growers
Association, and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association had anything to do
with this demand. You can always count on a Senator to do what’s best
for his re-election campaign rather than what is best for the country.
These symbols of political integrity will always spout the standard
talking points:
- Promoting ethanol reduces our dependence on foreign oil
- Ethanol is green renewable energy
- Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline
As we all know when dealing with a politician, “half the truth, is often a great lie.”
Amaizing
Corn is the most widely produced feed grain in the United States,
accounting for more than 90% of total U.S. feed grain production. 81.4
million acres of land are utilized to grow corn, with the majority of
the crop grown in the Midwest. Although most of the crop is used to
feed livestock, corn is also processed into food and industrial products
including starch, sweeteners, corn oil, beverage and industrial
alcohol, yogurt, latex paint, cosmetics, and last but not least, fuel
Ethanol. Of the 10,000 items in your average grocery store, at
least 2,500 items use corn in some form during the production or
processing. The United States is the major player in the world corn
market providing more than 50% of the world’s corn supply. In excess
of 20% of our corn crop had been exported to other countries, but
the government ethanol mandates have reduced the amount that is
available to export.
This year, the US will harvest approximately 12.5 million bushels of
corn. More than 42% will be used to feed livestock in the US, another
40% will be used to produce government mandated ethanol fuel, 2% will be
used for food products, and 16% is exported to other countries. Ending
stocks are down 963 million bushels from last year. The stocks-to-use
ratio is projected at 5.5%, the lowest since 1995/96 when it dropped to
5.0%. As you can see in the chart below, poor developing countries are
most dependent on imports of corn from the US. Food as a percentage of
income for peasants in developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia
exceeds 50%. When the price of corn rises 75% in one year, poor people
starve.
The combination of an asinine ethanol policy and the loosest monetary
policy in the history of mankind are combining to kill poor people
across the globe. I wonder if Blankfein, Bernanke, and Grassley chuckle
about this at their weekly cocktail parties while drinking Macallan
scotch whiskey and snacking on mini beef wellington hors d’oeuvres. The
Tunisians aren’t chuckling as food riots have brought down the
government. This month, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO) reported that its food price index jumped 32% in the second half
of 2010 — surpassing the previous record, set in the early summer of
2008, when deadly clashes over food broke out around the world, from
Haiti to Somalia.
Let’s Starve a Tunisian
“What is my view on subsidizing ethanol and farmers? Under the
constitution, there is no authority to take money from one group of
people and give it to another group of people for so called economic
benefits. So, no, I don’t think we should do that. Besides, bureaucrats
and the politicians don’t know how to invest money.” - Ron Paul
The United States is the big daddy of the world food economy. It is
far and away the world’s leading grain exporter, exporting more than
Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In a globalized food
economy, increased demand for corn, to fuel American vehicles,
puts tremendous pressure on world food supplies. Continuing to divert
more food to fuel, as is now mandated by the U.S. federal government in
its Renewable Fuel Standard, will lead to higher food prices, rising
hunger among the world’s poor and to social chaos across the globe. By
subsidizing the production of ethanol, now to the tune of $6 billion
each year, U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing skyrocketing food bills at
home and around the world.
The energy bill signed by that free market capitalist George Bush in
2008 mandates that increasing amounts of corn based ethanol must be used
in gasoline sold in the U.S. This energy legislation requires a
five-fold increase in ethanol use by 2022. Some 15 billion gallons must
come from traditional corn-blended ethanol. Nothing like combining PhD
models and political corruption to cause worldwide chaos. Ben Bernanke
and Charley Grassley have joined forces to bring down the President of
23 years in Tunisia. People tend to get angry when they are starving.
Bringing home the bacon for your constituents has consequences. In the
U.S. only about 10% of disposable income is spent on food. By contrast,
in India, about 40% of personal disposable income is spent on food. In
the Philippines, it’s about 47.5%. In some sub-Saharan Africa,
consumers spend about 50% of the household budget on food. And according
to the U.S.D.A., “In some of the poorest countries in the region such
as Madagascar, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, this ratio is more
than 60%.”
The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries
in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average
world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain
crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol
distilleries in the country set up to transform food into fuel, the
amount of grain processed has tripled since 2004. The government
subsidies led to a boom in the building of ethanol plants across the
heartland. As usual, when government interferes in the free market, the
bust in 2009, when fuel prices collapsed, led to the bankruptcy of
almost 20% of the ethanol plants in the U.S.
The amount of grain needed to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol
just once can feed one person for an entire year. The average income of
the owners of the world’s 940 million automobiles is at least ten times
larger than that of the world’s 2 billion hungriest people. In the
competition between cars and hungry people for the world’s harvest, the
car is destined to win. In March 2008, a report commissioned by the
Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel Policy estimated that the
bio-fuels mandates passed by Congress cost the U.S. economy more than
$100 billion from 2006 to 2009. The report declared that “The policy favoring ethanol and other bio-fuels over food uses of grains and other crops acts as a regressive tax on the poor.” A 2008 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) issued its report on bio-fuels that concluded: “Further
development and expansion of the bio-fuels sector will contribute to
higher food prices over the medium term and to food insecurity for the
most vulnerable population groups in developing countries.” These forecasts are coming to fruition today.
It Costs What?
The average American has no clue about the true cost of ethanol. They
probably don’t even know there is ethanol mixed in their gasoline. The
propaganda spread by the ethanol industry and their mouthpieces in
Congress obscures the truth and proclaims the clean energy mistruths and
the thousands of jobs created in America. The truth is that producing
ethanol uses more energy than is created while driving costs higher. The
jobs created in Iowa are offset by the jobs lost because users of
energy incur higher costs and hire fewer workers as a result. It takes a
lot of Saudi oil to make the fertilizers to grow the corn, to run the
tractors, to build the silos, to get the corn to a processing plant, and
to run the processing plant. Also, ethanol cannot be moved in
pipelines, because it degrades. This means using thousands of big diesel
sucking polluting trucks to move the ethanol – first as corn from the
fields to the processing plants, and then from the processing plants to
the coasts.
The current ethanol subsidy is a flat 45 cents per gallon of ethanol
usually paid to the an oil company, that blends ethanol with gasoline.
Some States add other incentives, all paid by the taxpayer. On top of
this waste of taxpayer funds, the free trade capitalists in Congress
slap a 54 cent tariff on all imported ethanol. Ronald R. Cooke, author
of Oil, Jihad & Destiny, created the chart below to estimate the true cost for a gallon of corn ethanol. Cooke describes a true taxpayer boondoggle:
It costs money to store, transport
and blend ethanol with gasoline. Since ethanol absorbs water, and water
is corrosive to pipeline components, it must be transported by tanker to
the distribution point where it is blended with gasoline for delivery
to your gas station. That’s expensive transportation. It costs more to
make a gasoline that can be blended with ethanol. Ethanol is lost
through vaporization and contamination during this process.
Gasoline/ethanol fuel blends that have been contaminated with water
degrade the efficiency of combustion. E-85 ethanol is corrosive to the
seals and fuel systems of most of our existing engines (including boats,
generators, lawn mowers, hand power tools, etc.), and can not be
dispensed through existing gas station pumps. And finally, ethanol has
about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline. That means the
fuel economy of a vehicle running on E-85 will be about 25% less than a
comparable vehicle running on gasoline.
Real Cost For A Gallon Of Corn Ethanol |
|
| Corn Ethanol Futures Market quote for January 2011 Delivery | $2.46 |
| Add cost of transporting, storing and blending corn ethanol | $0.28 |
| Added cost of making gasoline that can be blended with corn ethanol | $0.09 |
| Add cost of subsidies paid to blender | $0.45 |
| Total Direct Costs per Gallon | $3.28 |
| Added cost from waste | $0.40 |
| Added cost from damage to infrastructure and user’s engine | $0.06 |
| Total Indirect Costs per Gallon | $0.46 |
| Added cost of lost energy | $1.27 |
| Added cost of food (American family of four) | $1.79 |
| Total Social Costs | $3.06 |
| Total Cost of Corn Ethanol @ 85% Blend | $6.80 |
Multiple studies by independent non-partisan organizations have
concluded that mandating and subsidizing ethanol fuel production is a
terrible policy for Americans:
- In May 2007, the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University released a report
saying the ethanol mandates have increased the food bill for every
American by about $47 per year due to grain price increases for corn,
soybeans, wheat, and others. The Iowa State researchers concluded that
American consumers face a “total cost of ethanol of about $14 billion.”
And that figure does not include the cost of federal subsidies to corn
growers or the $0.51 per gallon tax credit to ethanol producers. - In May 2008, the Congressional Research Service blamed recent
increases in global food prices on two factors: increased grain demand
for meat production, and the bio-fuels mandates. The agency said
that the recent “rapid, ‘permanent’ increase in corn demand has
directly sparked substantially higher corn prices to bid available
supplies away from other uses – primarily livestock feed. Higher corn
prices, in turn, have forced soybean, wheat, and other grain prices
higher in a bidding war for available crop land.” - Mark W. Rosegrant of the International Food Policy Research
Institute, testified before the U.S. Senate on bio-fuels and grain
prices. Rosegrant said that the ethanol scam has caused the price of
corn to increase by 29 percent, rice to increase by 21 percent and wheat
by 22 percent. Rosegrant estimated
that if the global bio-fuels mandates were eliminated altogether, corn
prices would drop by 20 percent, while sugar and wheat prices would drop
by 11 percent and 8 percent, respectively, by 2010. Rosegrant said that
“If the current bio-fuel expansion continues, calorie availability in
developing countries is expected to grow more slowly; and the number of
malnourished children is projected to increase.” He continued, saying
“It is therefore important to find ways to keep bio-fuels from worsening
the food-price crisis. In the short run, removal of ethanol blending
mandates and subsidies and ethanol import tariffs, in the United
States—together with removal of policies in Europe promoting
bio-fuels—would contribute to lower food prices.”
The true cost of the ethanol boondoggle is hidden from the public.
The mandates, subsidies and tariffs take place out of plain view.
The reason blenders (and gas stations) will pay the same for ethanol is
because they can sell it at the same price as gasoline to consumers. A
consumer will pay the same for ten gallons of E10 as for ten gallons of
gasoline even though the E10 contains a gallon of ethanol. Consumers pay
the same for the gallon of ethanol for three reasons. (1) They don’t
know there’s ethanol in their gasoline. (2) There is often ethanol in
all the gasoline because of state requirements, so they have no choice.
(3) They never know the ethanol has only 67% the energy of gasoline and
gets them only 67% as far. The result is that drivers always pay much
more for ethanol energy than for gasoline energy, simply because they
pay the same amount per gallon. When gasoline prices are $3.00 per
gallon, Joe Six-pack pays $4.50 for the same amount of ethanol energy.
You know a politician, government bureaucrat or central banker is
lying when they open their mouths. Whenever evaluating a policy or plan
put forth by those in control, always seek out who will benefit and who
will suffer. Who benefits from corn based ethanol mandates and
subsidies? The beneficiaries are huge corporations like Archer Daniels
Midland and Monsanto, along with corporate farming operations (80% of
all US farm production), and Big Oil. The mandated ethanol levels are
set in law. By providing tax subsidies we are bribing oil companies with
taxpayer dollars to do something they are legally required to do,
resulting in a $6 billion windfall profit to oil companies. The other
beneficiaries are the Senators and Representatives from the farming
states who are bankrolled by the corporate ethanol beneficiaries and
their constituents who will re-elect them. The environment does not
benefit, as many studies have concluded that it requires more fossil
fuel energy (oil & coal) to produce a gallon of ethanol than the
energy created. The jobs created in the farm belt at artificially
profitable ethanol plants are more than offset by job losses due to the
added costs in the rest of the economy. When subsidies are removed or
oil prices drop, the ethanol plant jobs disappear, resulting in a
massive capital mal-investment.
Our supposedly wise PhD and MBA leaders have created a perfect storm.
The unintended consequences of government intervention in the
markets are causing havoc, food riots, starvation and intense suffering
for the poor and middle class. Brazil produces sugar cane ethanol in
vast quantities and can export it to the U.S. much cheaper than we can
produce corn ethanol. Fuel prices would be lower without tariffs on
Brazilian ethanol imports. The average cost of food as a percentage of
disposable income for an American is 10%. Averages obscure the truth
that the cost is probably .0001% for Lloyd Blankfein, Ben Bernanke and
Chuck Grassley, while it is 30% for a poor family in Harlem. America’s
horribly misguided ethanol policy combined with Ben Bernanke’s Wall
Street banker subsidy program are resulting in soaring fuel and food
prices across the globe. Poor people around the world suffer greatly
from these policies. Below are two assessments of ethanol.
“Everything about ethanol is good, good, good.” – Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa
“This is not just hype — it’s
dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol doesn’t burn cleaner than
gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents
only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption — yet it consumes twenty
percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to
double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the
Third World.” – Jeff Goodell
Who do you believe?
»
- 23079 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
The answer to the headline question is..
one
Often times one smart Senator can really screw things up.
so what do propose we do. Stop driving? Hey I am a Canuck- how do I stop an Iowa Senator from sodomizing a Tunisian peasant.
Once upon a time, back in the late 80's while I was playing hockey, I met a canuck illegal alien. He was whiter than I am. I thought it was a amusing turn of events.
....and, they made municipalities put ethanol in their city vehicles. Politicians lined their pockets with ethanol kick-backs while the world suffers for their greed and ultimate stupidity!
42...no wait that's the answer to life, the universe...everything...um...51!
6 And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."
7 And when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come."
8 And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
(Rev 6:6-8 NAS)
Exactly.
"...was given to them over a fourth of the earth..." Google EO Wilson and the "Death of Birth." Hmmm.
interesting....
Thanks!
an outstanding article which failed to mention the highly corrosive nature of ethanol on car engines and the environment.....this program was satan's handiwork....
It also does not focus on how much it decreases mileage.Ethanol has fewer BTU per gallon...it sucks...as it ruins all gaskets and polymers in your fuel system.
"Besides, bureaucrats and the politicians don’t know how to invest money.”
Sure they do. Mandate 15% ethanol in gasoline and hope your blind trust invests in corn futures. Wink.
"Besides, bureaucrats and the politicians don’t know how to invest money.”
Sure they do. Mandate 15% ethanol in gasoline and hope your blind trust invests in corn futures. Wink.
And...as someone said, it fucks up your MPG's.
The best thing to do is go here:
http://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/amending-the-constitution-t...
Then here:
http://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/us-constitution-28th-amendm...
thank you mr jim quinn for an illuminating piece, who would have thought it? i was one of those who thought that ethanol was an equal if not better substitute to refined gasoline and that an additive (like bleach) was required to make it energy equivalent to gasoline.
i was also under the illusion that it performed similarly to distilled coconut oil that was used by rebels in papua new guinea when their access to gasoline was not possible because of the civil war they were fighting (it apparently had almost no exhaust and helped the engine be more efficient).
can't they refine the ethanol distillate at a refinery using all that cracking technology we hear so much about?
i will take on trust the cost of lost energy in the table, and the cost for the family of four assumes that there is no subtitute for corn?
thanks again
Yes, but at least we can bask in the smell of our own farts while we tell the world we grow ethanol for the Environment.
To much anthropogenic CO2 Colonel. Basking in the smell and ambiance of our own gases is no longer allowed, however word has it that filter adapters will now be surgically applied to all polluting assholes. It's the law!!!
To fully complete this madness cycle, we need only develop a technique to convert nat gas directly to edible corn...
Welcome to a brief preview of things to come as the slope of the peak oil curve goes negative. Exactly the worst time in human history to have idiots and scoundrels in charge...
Rep. Weiner (D) versus Republicans
http://www.protranscript.com/transcript/show3/c729f185-2cdd-4bf6-a497-292d7ab62556
If only all politicians were like this..
You need to watch c-spam more regularly. I can assure they are all just as stupid and grandstanding as wienerdog. R or D they are all idiots driven by one thing only. The little barking dog you showcase here is no better than the least.
Weiner sounds like a raging disgruntled weiner from Oscar Mayer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNddW2xmZp8
Weiner was the one complaining about people buying gold. It seems that Glenn Beck's sponsors were Weiner's target.
Oops. Target is now an offensive word. Oops offensive is now an offensive word.
Weiner had to have been a hell of a name to grow up with PF. I'm beginning to think that Weiner's pent up rage may indeed be unresolved Weiner resentments associated with the consequences of the number of Weiner associated name calling wounds having a name such as Weiner.
Now that I think about it Weiner's intensity probably isn't directed at those weiners in the house but directed at those to whom may have inferred insults causing Weiner some sort of unconscious Weiner shame triggering Weiner wrath.
Perhaps a good title of the raging Weiner might indeed be called "The Wrath of Weiner" or "Limp Weiner Rising"...
Any thoughts on this ZHr's?
Oh, but they are - there in lies the problem. All hat, no cowboy.
I read a number of your comments, bitching etc about this. How about doing something about it? Contact your congressman/senator and keep after them. Tell them you want this insane policy changed. If they can spend time reversing obomacare, they can do the same for us in this respect. We elected them, we can take them out. I have been against this crapy fuel from the beginning. I only use non ethanol in my truck.
I wonder who can make a bigger sign. Me, or the corporations?
http://www.youtube.com/user/RP4409#p/u/26/qY2s4mMb_SU
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj235/antwan111_2008/law-of-attraction.jpg
Hulk
Ditto your comments.
I just love Ethanol. It takes more energy to produce than it produces. You don't get dumber than that!
Oh yes you do, you get a dumb product with an even dumber politician mandating we consume it. Genius!
Global warming is a scam that will cause millions to riot and starve. Energy and food prices are going up as planned, while the water in one of the most fertile food producing and exporting regionas in CA remains willfully turned with people out of work.
Both political classes are in on this -- Soros owns $330 million in Monsanto and he was insturmental in pushing the "food safety act" (food monopoly act) which gives Monsanto virtual monopoly on GM seeds. And, when you leave the country, you will be patted down and scanned by a Soros-owned scanner machine.
Q: How many Senators does it take to screw a taxpayer?
A: Only 60 at a time, but they can take turns, and by law the taxpayers can't be any brighter than a 12 Watt compact flourescent bulb.
.
I dont think Tunisia has anything to do with our subsidies as bad as they are. Tunisia is suffering just like any other developing country is suffering that has a US peg, from the inflation being exported by Ben Bernanke. This argument has merit, corn subsidies must stop, but given the inflation in virtually everything in Tunisia, Bangladesh, Algeria, etc the pthere is something more than just corn.
http://www.rightcondition.com/2011/01/money-kills-inflation-in-northern.html
Good thing they voted to peg or unpeg. And had it all explained to them. Oh ya. The banks make those decisions.
"intercepted by warlords!!"
We can always go back to the days of Steam, just need that coal and wadder as they say in Jersey when they are not gagging on the chemplants over there.
"This year, the US will harvest approximately 12.5 million bushels of corn."
Amaizing
Oh wait. Few paragraphs down.
"The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009"
Gosh, Jim, those must be some REAL HEAVY bushels those Iowa dumbfucks are harvesting.
And let's not forget the graph that shows the US producing 50 million metric tonnes of corn in 2009. Let's see, that would make a bushel weigh about eighteen thousand pounds. Big enough to be on the other end of Jim's teeter totter.
Let's give this idiot the benefit of a doubt and say he really meant that we will harvest 12.5 BILLION bushels of corn. Does that fix the problem? Nope. At 56 pounds per bushel that works out to over 300 million metric tons. The US only produces 50 million metric tonnes.
OK. He can't be that stupid. Maybe he meant 12.5 million metric tonnes. Nope. The graph shows 50 million metric tonnes.
The problem with Quinn is that he does math about as well as Jared Loughner and isn't nearly as good as shot with a Glock.
Good catch. It should be 12.5 billion bushels, of which 40% are dedicated to ethanol production. At 43.5 pounds per bushel, that would be 107 million tons.
This year's projected usage for ethanol is 4.8 bln- 38% of the crop. Last year's usage was 34.8%. The higher usage is not necessarily due to more grinding for ethanol- it is because the crop size was smaller due to weather problems, although usage is projected to increase somewhat.
Not sure about what you mean about the 43.5 pounds per bushel- a bushel of corn is 56 pounds, not 43.5 pounds.
>The grand lame duck Congress tax compromise extended a 45-cent incentive to ethanol refiners for each gallon of the fuel blended with gasoline and renewed a 54-cent tariff on Brazilian imports.<
Mr Quinn-
To clarify- While it is true the 45 cents is an incentive for the refiners to blend the ethanol, the tariff on imports is to offset that blenders fee. If there was no tariff on imports, the US would PAY 45 cents for every gallon imported. The tariff is meant to offset the blenders fee they would collect. If I'm not mistaken, the tariff has been reduced to more closely match the the blender's credit.
Also- ethanol was NEVER meant as a complete fuel. That was the result of the politicians jumping on the "green" bandwagon. Ethanol was originally intended as an oxygenate to replace MTBE. It was meant to help gasoline burn more complete. MTBE is a known carcinogen that was showing up in waters, streams, and soils all over our country. Ethanol was a safer substitute for MTBE. Evidently you favor the continuing poisoning of our enviroment.
Also- not all the corn is used in the production of ethanol. Each bushel of corn produces about 2.8 gallons of ethanol, and 18 pounds of DDG's, or dried distillers grain. That is then fed to cattle, hogs, poultry or whatever. So, about 32% of the bushels of corn you cite as used in making ethanol, is still used to feed livestock.
I could go on about the improvements in efficiency, and the move to more cellulosic ethanol, but I doubt you would be interested. I find most people are not interested, and already have their mind made up, even though they quote statistics a decade old, and studies that were funded by oil companies.
doesn't the tariff raise the price to the consumer, so that it simply goes into the overall budget and if it was imported without tariff there would be no need for a subsidy?
I don't know about the economics of ethanol production from corn but I put some high octane ethanol/petrol blend in my fuel tank a few years ago & I thought it improved engine performance.
The fuel was obviously not a seller though since it disappeared from the petrol stations within a few weeks. There is now a lower octane blend available but it is not as high a rating as normal high octane fuel.
"DDG's, or dried distillers grain", -- man that brings back memories, silage too, always loved the smell ... did I mention the Milking Parlor?
Ethanol is a net negative, beyond the damage it does to food prices and other goods.
Think about it; fertilizers, pesticides, planting machines, harvesters, transportation, production, trasportation of finished product. Gas (petroleum, ethanol, biodiesel, whatever) is used in all these steps.
Think Enron.
Think CDS's.
Think POMO.
Who is ERoEI and why is he eating my corn?
I pay $3.39/ Gallon for gas. 10% Ethanol. My Toyota runs like a charm. I had Green Giant creamed corn with my Pork chop, .40 cents a can, Same price as it was three years ago. It was delicious. No issues here. Rally on.
judging by your picture, better add lockjaw to finaceseer's list of dieases :)
Dream on.
Price of Bacon has doubled in 8 months.
It's a luxury item really, so adjusts faster than your porkchop or can of corn.
Think corn syrup, think livestock food.
The middle class is being sold out on all levels; welcome to the indentured servitude of the 21st century - festooned with glitter, thongs, football, beer (bread and circuses).
All Hail Caesar!
Wait....bacon...a luxury item? hell, I eat it three times a day! To me, it is a staple.
Bacon and Potatoes and Green Eggs Ham
Milk and Honey and Green Grass Hay
Blue Sky and Cool Cool Shade
Row your Boat Gently Mary's Lamb
--Rusty
Yah....lamb is ok......but nothing beats a piece of virgin white fatback off a lazy sow that was raised on table scraps and the thigh meat of pencil-neck bankers.
--Kate Greenaway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row,_Row,_Row_Your_Boat
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images.
- T.S. Eliot
TS Eliot was a thoroughly unusual, interesting and erudite man. He was in many ways a gift to the human race, despite some of his personal proclivities. His mind was like a sponge, constantly reading and learning and then discussing. I would have absolutely loved to take his classes at Oxford . He might have propelled me into being a English lit major, God forbid it.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
-- Mother Goose
A graven wordy Image of WB art
A Thompson Avatar
Poems of no Meaning of copy and paste
Flimsy tokens cast into the wind
- Aristarchan
... and, what is your point?
The same as yours, I suspect.
Bacon and Potatoes?
Milk and Honey?
Eggs and Ham?
Humpty Dumpty?
Mary's little Lamb?
Row Row Row your Boat?
Bullshit, actually.
If you can't dazzle them with brilliance ...
The baffle them. Seems like we have a lot in common.
Cheers !!!
i would not take, as a gift, a thing that i despise!
let's see here.....green giant creamed corn...heehee..
pork chop, pro'lly from the dupermrkt....
green giant corn=GMO....frankenfood. didja yer grandma eat that shite? hell no.
pork=pigs stacked on top each other living lives that'd make you pull your stomach out by the eso-fagus
i'd appreciate it if people wouldnt volunteer the poo they eat...havent ate breakfast yet. thanks.
I've noticed my gas mileage has dropped around 10% over the last few months. Every time I fill up I reset my trip odometer, and I used to get 300 miles on a tank but now it's more like 270. Anyone else noticing this?
The Government needs to get out of the consumer products business. Pundits claim they have good intentions that usually have disastrous results. I disagree, follow the money on all of their "well meaning" initiatives like ethanol and you will find some politician getting his or her pockets lined with $$$.
Enough is enough. Time to fight back, demand accountability, and get rid of the bums that did this to us. Congress should investigate all these bad deals and possibly find some company for Mr. Delay in Federal Prison.
Congress will never investigate itself as a whole, no more than they will ever legislate themselves into the poorhouse.
First of all: LESS is MORE (Mies Van der Rohe). These articles are too damn long!
Second of all: dont believe the HYPE against ETHANOL. Better that the bullshit GMO CORN derivative go in a car than in our bodies. The crap they breed this corn into existence with is unbelievable! Putting said ETHANOL into a CAR. Kool. YOU? Not so kool. Corn is no longer any good for Human Consumption! The shit is bonkerz. Even animals who eat this feed get all kinds of ARTHRITIS, DIABETES and ALOPECIA!! MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS of the UDDER most variety. Hell no. Stop campaigning against Ethanol. Its going where it needs to go: MACHINES. In fact, GRAINS are not meant for Human Consumption--PERIOD! Its why our lifespans have decreased.
An argument AGAINST GMO corn as food does not make an argument FOR ethanol as fuel. The data has shown consistently that ethanol is energy negative. That is, it provides less energy than is used in its production.
+
No offense, but everything you said is bullshit.
el wrongo el muchacho. ethanol bad for you/car/truck/animals/fields/iowa/earth.....
we keep trying to eek out the best tech to take us into a fossilfuel-free paradigm. maybe....we should just do without. gonna happen sooner or later. gmo corn fields need to be destroyed. get a coupla cases of cheap beer, weld that diamond-plated steel onto the front of yer truck, bee-line to iowa in july, take the first left off the interstate, first right off the backroads, turn into the corn fields and have a ball.....a little standing water helps with various tricks; the batman, the rockford file, the classic 180....its really fun
Thanks for covering this issue Tyler. If folks haven't see it, I recommend the documentary King Corn (it's streaming on Netflix). Ethanol is one of the biggest, and most destructive scams going. It's not only energy negative, everything we (and our animals) eat is corn now which is not only an insane health risk, but ridiculously unstable for our food supply. Two other good documentaries are the The Future of Food and Food Matters.
Fuck the Tunisians, Egyptians et.al. It was only a few years ago where farm land was taken out of production due to world food over supply. Every barrel of oil imported into the US is one more small dent in your sustainability as a nation. Quit your whining and smell the coffee. Ron Paul is a Nazi. I just paid $4.50 a gallon to fill the car up here in Canada and as far as I could tell, the world did not end. $2.00 a gallon is simply a dreamworld of bygone days. Your whining is another way of stating you cannot continue to dominate the rest of the world to a self gratuitous outcome after all.
I don't know which is worse. Ron Paul the Nazi, or Ron Paul the anti semite?
facepalm.jpg
I hope you are being sarcastic with the "Ron Paul is a Nazi" comment. Ron Paul is a constitutionalist. Please get your facts correct. Just because our country has practiced hegemony over the rest of the world doesn't mean we all agree with it.
Wow, our Canadian friends do enjoy their taxes, and there obvious condescension .
Dear Sir, I have a complaint
Can't remember what it is
It doesn't matter anyway
It doesn't matter anyway
Stop whispering, start shouting
Stop whispering, start shouting
Then there is the Caribbean Basin scam, whereby Brazil ethanol is pumped ashore, gets final dehydration, is pumped back on board, and moves on to the US duty-free as a Basin product.
Great ... Keep it up ... pump and dump is my new motto
awesome post.
Central planning is ALWAYS an UNMITIGATED DISASTER.
Apres moi, le deluge.
The wealth-spreaders never fail to profit from a CRI$I$.
Driving up 3rd world food prices was in the plan all along, how else are we gonna cajole 3rd worlders into buying genetically modified patented trademarked food seeds while at the same time abandoning agricultural independence, security and agricultural diversity?
Starving the shit out of them is just too easy.
I wonder if the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act applies to foreign, international, and domestic companies operating in America?
It would be funny if they used to same law that they used to hassle Cheney over Nigeria, and Fiorina over Russia could be used against all of Congress for passing their Ethanol mandate.
+1
One of the first political issues I became aware of growing up was the subsidies going to farmers & ranchers. They got paid to produce, and not to produce. Sweet.
Looking between the lines at the time, it was farm state senators selling their vote to support the wars of the military/industry complex.
Little has changed over the decades.
By the way, I saw few references to it in the posts above, but be aware
ethanol (alcohol) is hydroscopic. When it is put in gasoline then the fuel one uses in boats tends to absorb water. Carburetors don't take kindly to water.
I recently had to spend $300 to get a simple 10 hp outboard motor repaired because the carburetor had become clogged...due to ethanol fuel.
Recently the Federal gov approved INCREASING the ethanol content in gasoline from 10% to 15%.
The shit-for-brains politicians that allowed this should roast in hell.
The way to tell if Bernanke and friends are doing a good job is to drop them in the streets of Tunesia (without armed protection) and have them address the questions of the people.
Let the people decide.
It's a plot! Soros wants to kill us all!
So he can sell his CIT to, errr, emmmmm.
F it,
http://barrett.net/
Pardon the commercial:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzb5s_cindy-lauper-time-after-time_music
Thanks goodness my highest and best use is breeding
Bahhhh! Baaahhh!
(66% of Sheeple agree)
imo, food shortages will have a much more prominent effect on world conditions than PMs in the not so distant future. Think about it, if you're down to your last little bit of food, are you even going to consider a trade for PMs?
There are several in the current admin that believe that the world is over populated and as mentioned above food makes for a most effective weapon.
As far as ethanol I agree with the above posts, it's corrosive and criminal. Monsato is a 100x greater threat though. Between them and this damn health care bill represent a tremendous transfer of power to government. Nevermind that we are already screwed financially.
If you have some PMs, at least you can still get food. Agree it is too late for those without some backstop. Think ADM is a bigger threat than MON.
Will they ever put a line on the 1040 Form for 'losses due to ethanol'?
Tired of using the 'catastrophic losses' line.
As long as it covers engine repair I'm for it.
Its too bad africa will be collateral damage, but our only option to force china to depeg is thru food inflation. Otherwise they take our capital base...when a mercantilist sells to a free economy the subsidy is great for a while, but once they dominate the subsidy disappears and they jack up prices....so we must encourage food riots causing the fall of chinas government, or china drops the peg to avoid food riots......sorry about africa....couldnt be helped...its those chinese peggers that started it.
No, our only option is to de-nut those morons in DC. Not raising the debt ceiling is a real good start. Especially coupled with proposals to get rid of (myriad) goobermint departments that are useless. Rag on your rep! If the House doesn't cooperate, nothing will pass!
PS, what top are you calling tonite?
Yep, China is kicking Ben and Timmy's asses. While we're busy trying to save a piece of paper they are buying every commodity they can. When they have no further use for or consider us a liability they will dump everything.
They might do that - eventually, but they first have to find a replacement for their US exports.
With our ever weakening consumer demand and currency, just how long do you think that will be? We've shown them most of our trade secrets, and what we haven't shown them they have stolen. Same goes for defense.
Seriously, what do we have to offer at this point?
The largest and richest consumer base in the world.
Exactly.
They can't even get people to show up at empty malls over there.
I would think with a billion-gazzilion-quatrillion people with cash to burn, parking would be at a premium...hey!...we must be in da front row...LOL.
I travel to China quite often and the massive overbuilding (at least in my eyes) is incredible. And...if all those bicycle drivers in China ever manage to afford cars...then they have a real problem!...wonder what the trade there is?:)
Long traffic lane stripers...short bicycle sprockets? ;-)
That base is rapidly depleting and according to the BDI ships are being under utilizes.
Perhaps there is a reason all the retail execs are bailing from company stocks.
To those of you, sitting in your underwear in your Mom's basement, crying 'they're all the same!', put on a T-shirt and swim trunks, and head down to your Rep's office. Letters and email are crap. Get off your butts, ya morons!
I would, but my butt out-voted me.
If you read through all of these posts you can tell there is more than a whiff of rebellion in the air.
I'm proud of y'all, for having a pair. How does this become non-violent action?
When everyone figures out that everyone else is not old enough to buy ammo.
the non-violent action comes after the violence bell-curve ride....and we're just starting the climb. yo.
I now have a new recipients of my wrath ... It used to be the bankers, but they are only ripping us off ... the Ethanolters are reaping havoc and spreading mayhem. John Thune was my choice for 2012 President ... no longer!!
In my view (which is widely held as bullshit) ethanol, from a practical standpoint, is crap....but it is not reaping the wordlwide havoc sited in the article. Countries like Tunisia suffer from many more important issues than this.
I got a whiff of this problem in 2006 ... My Brother lives in Mexico and when the USGov started subsidizing Eth, the price of Tortillas doubled. Although this didn't cause starvation, it certainly reduced the standard of living, most notably, fewer kids could attend high school (in Mexico, education is not free).
Mexico is the second largest customer in the world for US corn, but they are so because we can sell it cheaper (not raise it cheaper) than farmers in Mexico.
This is largely because of U.S. agricultural policies. While one part of the U.S. government speaks of the need to alleviate Third World poverty, another is writing subsidy checks to American farmers, which encourages them to undersell Third World farmers.
- Michael Pollen, LA Times
This does not suggest to me a price increase in Mexico due to US Ethanol policy. Now, this did drive a lot of Mexican farmers away from corn growing, and any hiccup in imports could cause a spike in prices. My guess is that it is an issue of the almost quasi-religious desire for the Mexican people to eat Tortillas made from heirloom maize, and not genetically engineered corn...and most of these farmers have been driven out of business....so local corn is sold at a premium.
Thanks, didn't know that.
No prob....but don't take me as an authority on this subject...this is just my understanding. I do know that most Mexican Nationals I know are very suspicious of US grown corn....even ones living in the US, who tend to buy imported maize and masa products to make their own tortillas. Hell, man, they taste better too!
New delight for me to experience ... MexiMasa Taco ... but I think its the lard and not the corn
Lard is...the essence of life.
US big ag has been pushing their GM corn down there. A few years ago, GM contamination was found in Oaxaca. That is where corn was first developed from what was mostly a grass into the plant and product we recognize now. There are those who are concerned and some are outraged. However, there is a lot of poverty in the area so for many of the people the price makes inferior masa look like a good buy. In the birthplace of maize, many of the people are illiterate and some of the indigenous do not speak Spanish, so are somewhat out of the loop.
Here. Start @ 1:58. This is from Oaxaca in 2008.
"Corn at the Crossroads: Free Trade, Migration, and Modified Genes in the Cradle of Maize"
http://fsrn.org/audio-topic/documentaries?page=4
No, we need a complete financial collapse and with the good Lord's help liberty will triumph over tyranny.
"the Ethanolters are reaping havoc and spreading mayhem."
Don't let Grassley slip out of your carnivorous claw ;-)
http://theiowarepublican.com/home/2010/12/03/grassley-defends-home-grown-ethanol/
Sessions is another...not on ethanol...but banking...taking names my friend.
"We’ll get less domestically produced ethanol and be more dependent upon those oil sheiks"
Give me the damn sheiks ... at least they are honest about wanting to make a profit. Our Congress makes its profit without the pretense of truth.
That's the thing though...unless there are a bunch of sheiks that have re-located and set up shop in Mexico & Canada.
Top five oil exporters to the US;
Canada
Mexico
Saudi Arabia
Venezuela (Citgo)
Nigeria
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html
And it's been these countries for as long as I can remember.
Much of the talk about starving the poor is pure unadulterated excrement. When the U.S. exported huge amounts of cheap grains overseas the liberal eco freaks screamed and wailed that we were undercutting the farmers in the Third World causing them to go bankrupt and resulting in starvation (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Globalization/Land_Loss.html). Now the same wailing bunch of whiners say we're starving the people by withholding the grain!
If the price of grain is high it's an incentive for farmers to grow more and they will.
High energy costs (read fertilizer) raise the price of grain globally ... higher prices mean less food ... less food means more starving people.
Your article says: "Another reason for massive farmer displacement is that food-growing land is being taken over from small farmers by an elite of large companies" ... the elite big farmer will always blame it on 'external' forces ... sound familiar?
Higher prices are incentives for bigger farmers to make bigger profits.
None,just a computer.
And what difference does it make anyway when ... Green Bay is killing Altanta!
Junked and rightly so ... however, my point is that we sit around entertaining ourselves to death while the world descends into hell. As the greatest sheeple nation, we are obsessed with diversion.
"Nothing like combining PhD models and political corruption to cause worldwide chaos."
It works in Brazil, doesn't it?
Political corruption has probably been with us since some early proto-human who fancied himself leader, took tithe of a mammal jawbone still containing some tough sinew from a weaker and less connected thug. Political corruption is part-and-parcel of politics itself....it is the oxygen that drives men to want to become powerful. Political corruption is like lice, dandruff, viruses, jock itch, halitosis, body odor, dry skin, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, pride, lies, greed, arrogance and the Clintons.....things that cannot seem to be done away with. Trying to get rid of political corruption is like an Aborigine trying to get rid of his old boomerang.....the fucking thing keeps coming back and hitting you in the face. When Nixon called himself a "political man," he was telling the absolute truth. Political corruption will be with us until you get rid of politics, and then rid yourself of a society that requires politics, then rid yourself of society in total....since no matter what society you have made up of humans, you will have leaders - either by desire or by force, and you will have the same problems - albeit maybe without politics.....but still corruption. Corruption is greed, and greed is an animal thing....not just humans (and proto-humans) but dogs, squirrels, birds....existence breeds greed. So, OK...we are fucking stuck with that. PhD math models? no...we are not stuck with that. If any fool is still left in the world that believes math models (Brownian Motion and all the other things stolen from Physics) work outside of a bell curve, then they are indeed fools of the first order. Of course, these same fools will now try to model when a bell curve exists and when it starts growing fat tails, so they can transfer their risk to someone else, or abandon it altogether. So....fuck, maybe I am wrong here.....maybe PhD models will be with us forever, and maybe it has nothing to do with trying to predict when you are under the curve. maybe you just transfer your risk to a corrupt government made up of politicians, and let those lesser thugs who provide them their tithe foot the bill. Oh well...never mind:)
Does Jim Quinn work for CNBC? What a bunch of B.S.
How so ... where is your insightful critique?
Uhm....Bear, I did not realize that "insightful" was a requirement here....hee hee...that kinda poses a problem for me.
The only insightful critique I have to offer is that Jim Quinn should do his own research and not regurgitate misinformation about Ethanol. I will start out by saying, I agree that ethanol Will Not solve our energy needs, however most "so-called experts" forget why Ethanol was created. It was originally created to make gasoline burn cleaner. Also, most of the critics of Ethanol fail to realize or remember that the main reason Corn based ethanol came about in the first place, was corn for the past 20 years has been dirt cheap. Most farmers couldn't even give it away to break even.
There is a lot more, but the one thing I am so sick of hearing about is that Ethanol takes more energy to produce than it creates. If anyone would actually take the time to see where that study came from they would see that two professors came up with that assumption through studying ethanol. The main problem with their study is the companies that hired the professors were actually oil companies, who have something to gain if ethanol is abandoned. (As far as I'm concerned that study is about as accurate as the BLS numbers are). If you wanted to break the study down even further, you would see that their starting point in calculating the energy in, is wrong. They start with the farmer growing the corn. However, they should have started the energy in when the farmer delivers the corn to the ethanol plant. The reason behind this is, a farmer is going to grow something regardless of whether the corn is going to a elevator or an ethanol plant.
But I bet Jim Quinn wouldn't bother to do that research. Here's another thing for you all to consider. If you guys think JPM is manipulating the Silver market, your minds would really be blown if you saw what the USDA does to manipulate the data for the grain markets. Many farmers I've talked to know that if corn gets too high, the USDA will manipulate the data and then, just like the BLS numbers, go back later and adjust them.
I hope I was able to add some insightful critiques.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks for the explanation. I guess that I've only heard the stories of ethanol requiring more energy to produce than the energy derived from its production. When looking at statistics its usually all about the assumptions. However, why can't we get ethanol from Brazil?
I could care less about ethanol. If it can stand alone in the marketplace as a substitute for oil, then let it.
Don't take my fucking tax dollars and hand it to oil companies, ADM, Monsanto and fucking Charley Grassley. Do you get it douchebag?
You raving ideologues without facts disgust me. Nothing but drivel with no facts.
I think you are making money on ethanol. I think you either deliberately or willfully choose to remain ignorant.
If you truly believe the LCA of ethanol should start when the farmer delivers corn to the ethanol plant, that's all I need to hear to know you're either a lightweight or profiting from ethanol.
the disconnect with the Congresspeople is the vibe they get from the public constituency versus what they see from the shadow constituency.
See, when they are around the shadow folks, the executives, the big business interests, it's all backslapping and happiness. I've noted this disconnect in talking to elites - everything is great in their world, never been better. So it is with Congress, they inhabit a world of golf club memberships, and fat envelopes, and limo rides, and private plane trips and favors galore, free money and a legion of people with something to sell or who want some appropriations who do nothing but ass kiss. There is an entire INDUSTRY of lobbyists whose jobs it is to curry favor and move envelopes, procure hookers and drugs and dispense rolexes and to kiss ass if needed in order to make the deals.
Then, when a congressperson deals with a Main Street JQP, there is a titanic, unimaginable disparity between these perceptions of the world. They hear anger and fear and how times are NOT good. It's as if the rest of the country is living in another America. We've got 42M on foodstamps; one in every 7 or 8 voters would be one. We've got rampant unemployment, declines in Std of Living, U6 at 20%, underemployment and labor utilization at century extremes. So when the Reps go in front of the PUBLIC, they hear and see a completely different treatment and reaction and they simply do not know how to cope because that is LITERALLY the only time they ever hear shit like that, the truth. They are totally INSULATED from it, by design, by their handlers and staffers. The reps never read negative letters or opinions; those are redacted by their 3 monkeys staffers.
The Congress does not serve the public; it serves those who are there to pay for a share of "other people's money" to be sent their way. It's highly reminiscent of Marie Antoinette's reaction to being taken to her execution in a horsecart instead of what she thought she deserved, a carriage. She was taken aback, offended, stunned - it never occurred to her that the real world out there even existed.
When Congress bails out banks and bankers and makes record bonuses rain, while at the same time telling the public to go fuck themselves and buck up and even to stop whining, you simply have to conclude that they are not hearing the 300-1 opposition to shit like TARP. They only have ears for that 1 which came from JPM or GS's lobbyist. The 300 do not exist so far as they are concerned.
And if Congress ceases being responsive to their constituency, why the hell would they be surprised when violence is suggested to get their attention? Congress behaves in a brazen manner befitting those who believe they can act with utter impunity, the classic "let them eat cake." They are telling us to GFY and eat cake on a daily basis. They have no fear. None should be stunned if/when someone tries to put the fear of god in them in order to get them to listen.
You are 100% right about ... one always serves the one who pays the bills ... we need to seal up the teat of Lobby Milk. Nut, alas, this is but another wishful dream and will only happen when the Chinese take over and give them no choice.
I hope when the Chinks take over they ban TV advertisements, reality shows, professional sports, assholes (wait...I need to think about that one) hand phones, bicycles, grocery coupons, lotteries...and hell, maybe oxygen...then we wouldn't have anything to bitch about anymore.
He's my senator and I am ashamed, it's unfortunate that the huge wave that brought more republicans back to Congress carried him along with them. I saw him in a Perkins a year ago and wanted to bust him in the chops for voting for the stimulator.
If you start in about the problem with subsidizing ag with them they just shut down, they won't listen at all because they would feel it in their campaign wallets.
This isn't Dem v Rep, it's the people v Congress. Anyone who thinks bringing republicans back to majority will solve our problems is sadly mistaken, it's just two sides of the same idiotic self-serving corrupt coin.
Campaign finance reform is really the only hope we have, yet very few talk about it on this site. I wonder how many who are griping check the box on their tax return to donate $3 to campaign funding?
I'm sure I'll get ridiculed for suggesting that senators and reps should get paid way, way more than they currently do. Considering the power they hold, they get paid much less than their counterparts in private industry. Combine that with publicly funded campaigns and maybe the lobbying industry could be starved.
"Why Steal Less, when you can Steal More?"
Wall Steet Mantra, 2011
The politicians around the world are nothing more than auction items which can be sold to the highest bidder. They will do whatever they can for the lobbyist paying them the maximum amount of money. They are in the power seat to extract maximum advantage for themselves in the small time frame they occupy the seat of power.
The rest of the population is least of their concerns. The only activity they do is pacify the majority of the population using false statistics and promises of a better future so that they do not lynch them and their masters while they are robbing the taxpayers.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article24581.html
how many senators to screw in a light bulb ,, all of them one holding the light bulb.. 95 twisting t the chair
The fox in charge of the hen house
disgusting. theory, policy, execution, and economics all upside down. only thing that makes sense from this "boondoggle" is the politics of it.
a simple production subsidy for corn farmers would have accomplished a lot of the same objectives without nearly as many evil consequences, ie market distortions that lead to death. of course the effects of a corn production subsidy would still need to be measured against its potential cannibalization of other vital crop production and the subsequent price distortions.
and to top it off we slap a tariff on ethanol imports, amazing. the brazilians promise to take this to the wto. what do we think of the wto?
this reminds me of a joke; one of obama's most trusted aids walks into the oval office and in a distressed voice says "mr. president i have some disturbing news" the o man says, "shoot" the aid replies "a brazilian soldier was killed today in afghanistan" o shakes his head and says, "oh that's terrible, just terrible, but tell me one thing . . . just exactly how many is a brazilian?"