Rep. Bobby Jindal was among the 19 Republicans who voted for this monstrous $286 billion Farm Bill that provides welfare for farmers. Jindal said he was "pleased" and "proud" to support the measure, which would raise taxes by billions to pay for food stamps, incentivize illegal immigration, subsidize ethanol, broaden the Gulf Coast "Dead Zone", and distribute checks to wealthy corporate "farmers" like ExxonMobil, Chevron, International Paper and Caterpillar.
You can imagine the outrage among Louisiana's conservative bloggers at Jindal's betrayal of party and principle. Here's a small sampling of quotes from the resulting firestorm:
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*crickets chirping*
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It's puzzling. I would have expected someone in the blogosphere or the media to comment on Jindal's vote for the farm bill. Doesn't it seem odd that just a few days after Bobby Jindal declared war "against out of control government spending", he "proudly" supported a $286 billion welfare bill to corporate farmers? Isn't there a natural tension there begging for commentary? It practically writes itself, I think.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Oyster on Jindal's Fiscal Insanity/Hypocrisy
Oyster at Your Right Hand Thief has an excellent, but long posting on Bobby Jindal's "proud" support of a pork-laden, budget-busting farm bill all the while claiming to be a fiscal hound-dog. You should read the whole posting by Oyster because it's such good analysis of the insanity of the man who appears to be headed to the Louisiana Governor's mansion. But to give you a representative sample of Oyster's analysis, here's what I think cuts to the chase:
Way too many "conservatives" consider farm subsidies to be an acceptable form of wealth redistribution. In many cases, it is because they simply don't understand or spend much time considering the issue. In other cases, it is because their support for free markets is only skin deep.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, supporting farm subsidies is always a winning proposition for a politician who has farmers in his state. Nobody ever seriously complains about it, no matter how much money is given to mega-huge corporate farms (and that is where the majority of subsidy money goes, not to the small family farmer).
President_Friedman - You're right. And I'm pretty sure that Louisiana sugar farmers have a lot to do with Jindal's support for this. That, coupled with his intentions to win statewide office, would make Jindal's support for this bill more understandable at one level and would explain why Jindal supports it and not other Republican members of Louisiana's Congressional delegation.
ReplyDelete