Below The Beltway

I believe in the free speech that liberals used to believe in, the economic freedom that conservatives used to believe in, and the personal freedom that America used to believe in.

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Archive for the 'Government Waste' Category

Farm Welfare: Its Not Just Welfare, Its Pork

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, July 18th, 2006. Filed under Economics, Government Waste, Politics

The Washington Post has been giving alot coverage to the farm welfare fiasco over the past weeks. We’ve seen storties of people getting farm subsidies who don’t even own farms, other farmers gaming the farm relief system to make huge profits, ranchers who get disaster subsidies even though they’ve never subsidized a disaster, and farm [...]

Politics And Welfare. Perfect Together.

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, July 18th, 2006. Filed under Government Waste, Politics

The Washington Post has a companion piece to today’s story about the Livestock Compensation Program, that tells a very interesting political story.
If not for a tight Senate race in South Dakota in 2002, there might have been no Livestock Compensation Program.
In August 2002, 12 weeks before the election, aides to the Republican candidate, then-Rep. John [...]

Maybe They Send Flood Aid To The Desert

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, July 18th, 2006. Filed under Economics, Government Waste, Politics

Last month, I wrote here and here, about a series that had appeared in the Washington Post about the manner in which the farm welfare system had been abused and created incentives for otherwise productive farmers to act in ways that would seem irrational outside of the welfare they were receiving from the state. Today, [...]

More On The Absurd Farm Welfare System

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, July 3rd, 2006. Filed under Economics, Government Waste, Politics

The Washington Post is continuing its series on the state of the farm welfare system, which I wrote about yesterday. Today, they write about an program that pays farmers to compensate for declining prices, even when prices are rising.
EDEN, Md. — Roger L. Richardson, a vigorous 72-year-old who grows corn on 1,500 acres of prime [...]

Time To End Farm Welfare……Again

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, July 2nd, 2006. Filed under Economics, Government Waste, Politics

This morning’s Washington Post has an excellent article that shows exactly why government welfare programs, no matter who they are directed at, can never really be reformed to eliminate waste, absue, and inefficiency. In this case, its welfare to farmers, and the 10 years of results we’ve seen from 1996’s so-called Freedom to Farm Bill:
When [...]

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