With farm incomes on the rise in recent years, what is Big Ag supposed to do? How can they justify more subsidies? Well, for one thing, they can spend more time demanding an endless flow of cheap labor to which they can pay below market wages. But that would require the passage of an amnesty bill, something that many House members are not excited to | Read More »
There has been much controversy over the government’s efforts to advertise welfare programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as the “food stamp” program. Only they’re not “stamps” any more. The dependent masses of Food Stamp Nation get a little credit card, called an EBT Card, which they can use in the checkout lines, just like people who pay for their own | Read More »
On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech discuss recent polls showing Americans want entitlement reform, but not entitlement reforms that impact them, and skyrocketing insurance premiums under Obamacare and the implementation of state exchanges.
Read More »For those of us who are not schooled in the ways of Washington, here is a glimpse into the duplicity of the “budget savings” as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations. House Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas has raised hopes that Congress might still be able to produce a multi-year farm bill soon, possibly as part of a package to block impending tax increases and | Read More »
In many respects, this country no longer looks like the American Republic that our parents and grandparents experienced. More than ever before, government is destroying private enterprise on the one hand, and offering permanent dependency on the other hand. With all the focus on big bird, binders, and the 47%, the most important figure is the $1.03 trillion – the cost of combined federal and | Read More »
Shortly after the November elections, Congress will reconvene for the lame duck session and consider the farm bill at the behest of a bipartisan coalition of statists. The farm bill is really a food stamp bill. The House version (H.R. 6083) authorizes $957 billion in spending over 10 years, $756 billion of which will be spent on food stamps and other nutrition programs. The Senate | Read More »
They’re back! Congress is back in session after the August recess, but they will only be in town for a few weeks. While conservatives are usually happy with the idea of Congress staying out of session, there is much on the agenda we must pursue in order to undo Obama’s destructive policies. We must not squander our time on suspension bills banning the sale of | Read More »
After a year full of victories for big government legislation in Congress, the forces of statism seemed to have met their Waterloo with the farm/food stamp bill. The more people learned of the profligate food stamp spending and the market distorting, risk-inducing agriculture programs contained in the bill, the more they spoke out against this monstrosity. Speaker Boehner has refused to bring the bill to | Read More »
Dear Speaker Boehner, During every election cycle, virtually every Republican candidate affirms his or her support for limited government, free markets, and balanced budgets. They all tout their conservative credentials on the flashy flag-waving issues of the day in an effort to ingratiate themselves with Republican primary voters. However, it is the “inside baseball” issues such as the farm bill that expose many of them | Read More »
Last week, the House Agriculture Committee marked up the preposterous $957 billion farm/food stamp bill (H.R. 6083). Despite the media reports about severe cuts to the food stamp program, this bill actually locks in the appalling levels of spending established in the Obama-era. In many respects, the committee votes from last week shed light on the problem we have with many red state statists within | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the potential surrender of French financial sovereignty to Germany and the growing number of Americans on food stamps. We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at bjackson[at]coffeeandmarkets.com. We | Read More »
While we are struggling to repeal the government takeover of healthcare, a bipartisan bicameral group of politicians are further entrenching government control of Agriculture. They are also agreeing to enshrine Obama’s food stamp spending into the welfare system indefinitely. We have witnessed a robust counteroffensive against the farm/food stamp bill among great writers and policy makers in the conservative movement. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many | Read More »
Yesterday, Erick mentioned a revolutionary one-stop website designed to hold Republican House members accountable for their voting records. The Madison Project unveiled ConservativeVotingRecords. Com, which houses a simple yet novel index that compares the voting records to the ideological bent of the member’s district. The results are not pretty. 52 members who hail from solid Republican districts scored 20 points below where they should be | Read More »
Here’s a novel idea: let’s stop subsidizing Big Sugar. Maybe if the government wouldn’t intervene in the agriculture sector, inducing sharp increases in the price of commodities, many of the 46 million people on food stamps would be able to afford food. Then again, why would liberal politicians abrogate their source of political power? They stand to benefit from subsidizing rich sugar farmers and keeping | Read More »
There is perhaps nothing as destructive to the free market as the federal government’s stranglehold over the agriculture sector. There is also nothing as detrimental to the GOP’s ability to draw a bold contrast on free markets, dependency, spending, and crony capitalism, as their willingness to support 5-year farm bills. Current farm policy creates inveterate dependency in some of the most conservative corners of the | Read More »
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