Former S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford – the newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives – got some love from the Heritage Foundation this week for his votes against a massive food stamp/ farm subsidy boondoggle.
Sanford – who was on the receiving end of some criticism from the think tank earlier this month – got an atta boy after backing an amendment to the legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisconsin). Kind’s amendment would have done away with roughly a third of the nation’s market-distorting farm subsidies – specifically those received by larger farms.
“The Kind amendment would have introduced transparency into the crop insurance program and reduced the overall cost to taxpayers,” Heritage’s Katherine Rosario wrote of the amendment.
Indeed it would have …
We believe all farm subsidies should be eliminated, but Kind’s amendment would have been a good place to start.
Fortunately, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans voted last week to reject the food stamp/ farm subsidy bill, but they now must take it a step further and gut these subsidies.
Government has no business subsidizing production (or lack of production) and picking winners and losers on the farm any more than it does in the manufacturing arena. All such intervention does is create new obligations for taxpayers and higher prices for consumers.
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35 comments
None so blind as those who will not see. Poor Sic Willie. Perhaps he just can’t understand that food and water are very different from any other “market” items. So he just rails on in his Alice in Wonderland world.
That’s true. But liberals have perverted everything in this country..so government has just become a money-grab for the lazy and dishonest….
And sadly, once-proud farmers have sold their souls and are just as greedy and are just as corrupt as the rest of the leftwing special intrest groups…beats workin’ I guess…if you are that kind of person…
And, Trikki and the medical business market.
These people can only take in Koch/Cato/Heritage sound bites and cannot develop one idea born of critical thought on their on.
None so blind as those who will not see. Poor Sic Willie. Perhaps he just can’t understand that food and water are very different from any other “market” items. So he just rails on in his Alice in Wonderland world.
And, Trikki and the medical business market.
These people can only take in Koch/Cato/Heritage sound bites and cannot develop one idea born of critical thought on their on.
He’s always voiced the sentiments of society’s construbutors. Sanford is the exact opposite of Obama, who p!$$#$ in the face of the people who build this country. But Sanford was not an effective leader as Gov. He failed us Conservatives because he is a spoiled Trust Fund baby…He does not know how to work to get a result, other than a selfish one.
That’s why it’s not as bad, considering his charatcer flaws, that he has been elected as a FOLLOWER….
As long as someone puts the vote in Sanford’s hand, he knows how to do the right thing…at least legislatively…
I see BigT working hard, paying taxes…oh, fuck me, he’s gettin’ his all day troll on. Well, hello, sunshine!
“As long as someone puts the vote in Sanford’s hand, he knows how to do the right thing…at least legislatively…”
Funny, put the Heritage Foundation in the mix and you’re now a “follower” of Sanford now? Don’t even start ( but, you will) tell me how the radical left is morally bankrupt.
Sanford is not a trust fund baby. His father was a doctor, true, but the government got most of what the senior Sanford earned in his lifetime. Like many farmers nowadays whose land is worth a lot on paper, when it comes to passing the family farm on, the next generation is expected to cough up about 50% of that value to the IRS, forcing many to sell off livestock, equipment and land. Such was the case with the Sanfords. M.Sanford and his brothers did not build their father’s casket because it was a neat shop project to earn a Boy Scout badge, but because it was necessary. That being said, maybe farmers would be better served with a less punative tax structure rather than farm bill subsidies.
So Mark wants to spend the rest of his life, virtually his entire life so far, on the government teat to make up for what the government did?
If the daddy didn’t know how to manage his money, is that everyone else’s problem?
Are you sniffing glue or paint? Working 10-12 hours a day in a position where you have to take non-stop crap from your political opponents, be under scrutiny by the media, and available to your constituents — all for the same salary as a mid-level manager at the phone company -, that is hardly being “on the government teat.” It’s a job, and one you cannot pay most people enough to take on.
Which is why most pols are on the take in some way, shape or form.
The ones that don’t need/want the money have their own special set of pathologies.
Most of them are probably megalomaniacs.
That being said, I agree with your surmise on farmers benefiting more from tax break than subsidies.(at least the small ones)
Yes, just like us posting on Fitsnews.
Then why are so many conservative Republicans fighting for the Job, and why do they all fight to keep once they get it. You don’t see many resignations do you?
He is on the government teat in the worst possible way. The taxpayers have been supporting this deadbeat for over a decade now. He makes more than 90+% of Americans, he gets free health care, and a huge retirement plan. I assure you there are hundreds of thousands of people more qualified than him who would gladly take his job for less than he is being officially paid, not to mention the bribes and under the table payments they all seem to get.
Well I suggest he resign and become a job creator. Why not spur the economy by starting a business and do something productive. Why does he want to live on a government check and receive government health care and government retirement?
Quit lying. This guy was born w/ a silver spoon in his mouth. He has not had to learn to work w/ others. That’s why he accomplished so little, as governor.
Family tractor sheds now shelter BMW’s as the generations who cannot afford to farm or cannot appreciate the work of their ancestors slowly sell off a few acres at a time in essence living off their inheritances and leaving nothing behind for the next generation.
Not sure who is at fault but it is sad to see. The farmers and the fisherman cannot compete with the market structure of corporate factory ships and Big Ag while land taxes keep going up. The fuel burnt alone to keep a field from returning to the forest is trouble enough when an ear of corn can be bought for 21 cents in your supermarket.
Family tractor sheds now shelter BMW’s as the generations who cannot afford to farm or cannot appreciate the work of their ancestors slowly sell off a few acres at a time in essence living off their inheritances and leaving nothing behind for the next generation.
Not sure who is at fault but it is sad to see. The farmers and the fisherman cannot compete with the market structure of corporate factory ships and Big Ag while land taxes keep going up. The fuel burnt alone to keep a field from returning to the forest is trouble enough when an ear of corn can be bought for 21 cents in your supermarket.
Is this the same Heritage Foundation that invented Obamacare?
Like the Voting Rights Act, times have changed.
The very same…the Heritage Foundation came up with the individual mandate in 1989…the Republicans introduced it into the Senate justifying it as promoting personal responsibility in 1994 and suddenly it is so horrible that not a single Republican or self identified conservative would vote for it in 2010. Wonder what could have changed since then?
An African American Democrat became President of the United States.
Is this the same Heritage Foundation that invented Obamacare?
Like the Voting Rights Act, times have changed.
The very same…the Heritage Foundation came up with the individual mandate in 1989…the Republicans introduced it into the Senate justifying it as promoting personal responsibility in 1994 and suddenly it is so horrible that not a single Republican or self identified conservative would vote for it in 2010. Wonder what could have changed since then?
An African American Democrat became President of the United States.