Democrats hate kids - no prob in making them cry over spilt (and pricey) milk - Granite Grok

Democrats hate kids – no prob in making them cry over spilt (and pricey) milk

Milk CartonSo much for “it’s for the children!” – instead, it is the age old Democrat ploy of “let’s use kids as political shields – again!”. This sorry political story actually illustrates TWO really bad problems:

  • Democrats have no problem in threatening the well being of toddlers and young children to get their way
  • Congress not able to kill off old laws and the programs they spawned that make no sense anymore (unless it can be used as a Democrat billy club later)

From The Hill (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Democrat’s latest farm bill strategy: Threaten to double the price of milk

The top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee has launched a new strategy for passing a farm bill this year: threaten to send milk prices skyrocketing.  Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said he called Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack this week suggesting that the agency begin the process of implementing the 1949-era dairy policies that would take effect Oct. 1 if Congress fails to act on a farm bill before then.

“Clearly this is not going to get done by the 1st of October, so my suggestion to the secretary is that they should start now putting the framework together to implement the permanent law on dairy Jan. 1,” Peterson said Wednesday in the Capitol. “And it sounds to me like they’re going to take a very serious look at that.” The 1949 law requires the Agriculture Department to manipulate the dairy market in such a way that milk is priced at a floor of roughly $39 per 100 pounds – a figure that would lead milk prices to roughly double at today’s rates.

Good to know – Democrats are willing to hurt poor families in order to get their way politically. 

And provide more corporate welfare to Big Farm (cause it ain’t Family Farms that get most of the Govt moolah (heh! Had to sneak that in somehow) when it comes to subsidies.  They’re just feeling burnt as the Republicans (and I think rightfully so) split out the farm subsidies (really, as all it comes down to is taking money from us and giving it to someone else) and the Food Stamp program (to which the Obama and FDA are using to get folks addicted to Govt food handouts – after all, if the Obama Economic Recovery was all that hot, we wouldn’t need Food Stamps, right?).

Ah yes, and Democrats are all about using identity politics – especially when it is over the most Command – and – Control, Top – Down economic policy where Government can (and has often done) determine farmer output and pricing to equalize “fairness” and “for the common good” (good old Marxist reasoning that – set up 64 years ago by good Progressives that didn’t believe that the Market could do the job – well, the FREE Market doesn’t lend itself to be a political club, does it?):

Peterson’s strategy is not to see that happen, but to rouse the affected industry groups – particularly the powerful International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) – into pressuring  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders to enact a bill preventing the cost hike.  “IDFA is really going to hate this,” Peterson said. “And once Vilsack’s calling them and setting up the mechanism to get $39 milk, IDFA’s going to call Boehner. So, it might actually work.”  Peterson said his strategy has the backing of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Congress has struggled for years to pass a long-term reauthorization of the farm bill, relying instead on short-term extensions to existing policy that have prevented the permanent law of 1949 from taking effect.

This is like the eternal “doc fix” for Medicaid – but decades older.  This is what Crony Capitalism does – distorts what should be a real marketplace where demand determines supply (hey, isn’t that what the $1 Trillion Porkulus was supposed to do, “stimulate” demand (instead of union and govt workers incomes)?).  But remember, it isn’t just Greedy Capitalist lapping up the milk of Taxpayer Monies – it takes Greedy Power Hungry Politicians to supply that TM to their trough…

…and as we see here, threaten to turn off the spigots when politically expedient.  And you wonder why I rail for more limited Government (to make this nonsense stop).

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