A Lard Omelet

This farm bill larded up with pork and subsidies might as well be a lard omelet. A joke. A Steve Martin special from the Absent-Minded Waiter, only this time it's not only inedible but at the end the customers get mugged, not showered with money. That goes to the well-fed beneficiaries of this farm bill, who, at a time when food prices have risen 56% over the last two years, are receiving subsidies when their income could be as much as $750,000 a year. Democrats and some porky Republicans have refused to cap the income to qualify for subsidies and have stuffed this bill with pork to buy off urban lawmakers. As for crude demagoguery (this is the Dems' change? Back to the 70's) on our needing food stamps now, if corn and food prices weren't so high due to the Democrats' mandating wasteful ethanol we wouldn't be in such a fix.

Kudos to local Republican congressmen and McCain allies Judy Biggert, Mark Kirk and Peter Roskam. Dem Melissa Bean voted against it too, even though she is an Obama delegate and he supported this mockery to hard-pressed consumers.(This should stick in your craw, Barack.) She must be feeling the heat from Republican challenger Steve Greenberg.

In his remarks yesterday in Chicago, Sen. John McCain was emphatic that as President he would veto this bill. Tribune:

I may surprise some people by saying what few presidential candidates would ever be willing to say out loud in farm country: I'd veto the farm bill—a bloated expansion in federal spending that will do more harm than good.

When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill. We must question policies that divert more than 25 percent of corn out of the food supply and into subsidized ethanol production. We must question a supply-control sugar program that costs Americans $2 billion annually in higher sugar prices.

Can we honestly demand fair and free trade from other countries when this bill increases trade distorting payment rates and restores an illegal cotton program? Sen. Barack Obama has raised the rhetoric on fair trade and restoring fiscal discipline, but his support for the farm bill betrays the inconsistency of his position: Cry foul with our trade partners, but break the rules at home.

The majority of subsidies in this proposal go to large commercial farms that average $200,000 in annual income and $2 million in net worth, and the bill allows a single farmer to earn more than $1 million before cutting subsidies. How can we credibly extend this largesse to this constituency? If I am elected president, I will seek an end to all farm subsidies and tariffs that are not based on clear need.

Note to the Democrat majority which "leads" Congress--serving America up a lard omelet is not a winner. As Sen. McCain also said: "Congress should be ashamed of this mockery of its promise to rein in waste and earmarks."

P.S. More food for thought from Sen. McCain's important speech yesterday:

Lost in all of this deal-making and money-grabbing in Washington is not only the common good in our own country, but a concern for other people across the world -- people who look to us for an example of fairness and honesty. When the United States and Europe subsidize our biggest agricultural producers, we distort global prices and we hurt the world's poorest farmers in Africa and elsewhere. These men and women wonder how our government can live with such policies, even at the expense of our own citizens. They believe that our massive subsidies to American producers are a form of protectionism, helping already rich companies at the expense of people and nations in need. They think that these corporate subsidies are inconsistent with our own standards and ideals, and with the good heart of America. And my friends, they are right.

UPDATE: David Brooks, NY Times, Farm bill was a test for our leaders. It starts out this way:

In 1965, Mancur Olson wrote a classic book called “The Logic of Collective Action,” which pointed out that large, amorphous groups are often less powerful politically than small, organized ones. He followed it up with “The Rise and Decline of Nations.” In that book, Olson observed that as the number of small, organized factions in a society grows, the political culture becomes more divisive, the economy becomes more rigid and the nation loses vitality.

If you look around America today, you see the Olson logic playing out. Interest groups turn every judicial fight into an ideological war. They lobby for more spending on the elderly, even though the country is trillions of dollars short of being able to live up to its promises. They’ve turned environmental concern into subsidies for corn growers and energy concerns into subsidies for oil companies.

Who will end this gross abuse of power which impoverishes most of us? Who will stand up and say no? The bill passed by a veto-proof majority. Just say no to those who voted for this slap in the face to Americans. VOTE THEM OUT.

UPDATE: Front page, Chicago Tribune, mass crowd photo, story, "Front and Center, Obama on the verge". Written by Michael Tackett, Washington Bureau:

The improbable, implausible path to the Democratic nomination for president began on a frigid January night in Iowa. As the returns streamed in from precinct caucuses, a clear picture began to emerge that Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was heading for a triumph stunning in its size and scope.

He erased many doubts on that night, not the least of which was whether white voters would deliver a victory for an African-American candidate, and one of limited experience at that. That set in motion a surge of support among African-Americans, long the base of the Democratic Party, and they sustained him at critical moments throughout the primary process. Along the way, though, doubts again surfaced about whether his race would be a barrier that white voters would not cross.

The Iowa caucuses seem like years ago, but it was not even long enough for the Earth to revolve halfway around the sun.

The Big O on the verge. Barack Obama is Earth and Sun.

UPDATE: Sen. McCain in Miami, keeping up the pressure. RCP Blog.

Related posts: Trib Propaganda for Obama, Jimmy Carter Obama, The Full Michelle, 2013: John McCain's Vision