Welfare Kings

        Y'know who I really marvel at?  Of course you don't, how could you? So I'm gonna tell you! I marvel at the attitudes of people like the current occupiers of the wilderness refuge building in Oregon, and even more at their eastern cousins, the farmers who grow corn on large farm acreage.

        Typically, both these groups show the facade of  fiercely independent souls who, don't like the government much in their lives and almost constantly, sort of like  Greta Garbos with shit on their shoes, just "want to be left alone."  If they actually lived their lives in this fashion, it might be possible to generate a tiny bit of sympathy for them, but alas, a closer look shows a very different story. many of these folks who seem so anti-government actually are biting the hand which feeds them and, by extension, all of us.

        Former President Bush (43-"W"), certainly a friend of the petroleum industry managed to sign into law several pieces of legislation which not only kept alternative energy research in a subordinate position to Fossil fuels, but gave US corn producers an even bigger handout than the already significant corn subsidies they were being paid by the government they profess to dislike so much.

        The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a federal program that requires transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels. The RFS originated with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was expanded and extended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). Remember, this was under the aegis and at the recommendation of a committee which was largely comprised of energy corporation execs and chaired by Dick Cheney! The RFS requires renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel in increasing amounts each year, escalating to 36 billion gallons by 2022. This is the E-10 gasoline at your local pump. Each renewable fuel category in the RFS program must emit lower levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) relative to the petroleum fuel it replaces. Yes, you are correct, the Government actually created a guaranteed market for  a non-food use of corn - ethanol for fuel addition. Not only created the market,  but mandated its use. Now this was at a time when the principal concern re: fossil fuels was actually US supply and cost, to some greater degree that emissions.

        Now gasoline prices are at an all time low. Wait, before you call bullshit on me, read on. Average  household income in 1950 was  $3,300 annually. Gasoline was about 29.9 cents per gallon. in 2014, average household income was $51,017 annually. If gas prices had simply kept pace with inflation, a gallon today would cost $4.48 per gallon! In spite of prices being half that or less, we're still subsidizing farmers to raise corn, not for food, but for ethanol production.

        As an aside, The average automobile only gets  about 93% as much mileage with 10% ethanol as with straight petroleum. This means having to purchase more E-10 gasoline.  Even while the price of the actual refined petroleum has dropped markedly, the price of ethanol, subsidized as it is, hasn't declined at all!  

        Subsidies in general have been a way of every American, urban, suburban, or rural, paying more for certain foods to keep farmers solvent.  Initially, during the Great Depression, subsidies took the form of payments to farmers to let land remain fallow (unplanted)  in exchange for government money. This was to keep prices higher by creating lower supply for the same demand.  But what began as a temporary stimulus measure gradually became  something much more permanent and unwieldy. Skip ahead through several decades of back-and-forth tinkering with the policy (see: “target prices,” “price floors,” “short crop,” “deficiency payments”) to the mid-90s, when we introduced something called “direct payments.”  And yeah, That’s pretty much what it sounds like: Paying money. Directly. To farmers. These payments were given out to certain commodity farmers, based on the historic records of what their land could produce. They were paid out rain or shine, whether prices were high or low. Some of our wealthiest members of Congress do, and have for generations, collect these handouts while criticizing the Government which redirects our money to their pockets.

        In 2014, after much squabbling, Congress approved a new farm bill, more than two years after they were scheduled to. The main emphasis of the federal farm policy is now on subsidized “crop insurance.”  This sounds promising at first — “insurance” should come with a focus on minimizing risk, right?  In actuality,  these insurance plans largely help guarantee that farmers can sell their crop above a certain price (Price Loss Coverage) or make a certain amount of revenue (Agricultural Risk Coverage), and do little to encourage, say, better drought-planning measures or a more diverse spread of crops. With the federal government spending over $5 billion a year to subsidize these insurance premiums, all that corn (and soy and wheat) doesn’t come cheap.

        Since 1995, 75 percent of federal subsidies have gone to 10 percent of farms, the same consolidated group of commodity crop growers who will continue to eat up a disproportionate share of the subsidy pie under the new system, too.  These payments fund a massive industrialized food system that takes its toll on our land and water, while our diets are full of all that extra corn, from our corn-fed burgers to our Halloween candy — and so are our cars.  

      Meanwhile, many of these same rustic  welfare kings bitch about how they want the government out of their lives. They also stereotype welfare recipients unfavorably. Funny how they exclude themselves from the mix. Odd, ain't it?