Posted on 12/05/2008 5:25:46 AM PST by RetroSexual
For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.
Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Wonder when this might have humans included?
Harry Reid may sponsor the bill.
How much will the goobermint charge me for breathing?
I remember not too long ago England wanted to start a ‘poll’ tax. A tax for existing, nothing to do with income or anything else. It wasn’t popular.
I wasn’t paying attention to that case in 2007. Here’s a report on it:
Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito dissented.
I don’t think cows should be taxed for just doing what cows do .... unless, of course, they let one go in a crowded elevator.
Cows eat grain and corn etc. They need what to grow? What do cows give back? It’s a natural cycle. This is like Taxing mother nature.
They have already put in motion to re-initiate the enforcement of the RFID tags on all animals these same people raise. They claim it is to safeguard our food, however it is required even for animals raised for personal use. Veterinarians are required to report any animals not tagged and none can be taken to feed lots or sold and reported as income without the tag numbers being reported as well.
It's a way to control our food sources, by not allowing the small farmer or anyone else to have animals outside of the big feed lots controlled by large corporation which are exempted from the tag requirement.
I remember as a young child going with my grandfather to one of his farms. He was one of the first in Ill to raise Angus. I had never smelled a feed lot up close and expressed my dislike of the smell. Grandpa took a big breath, grinned, and announced, “Smells like money!”
#2 caption. Hey bub pull my finger.
Excellent point. We need a ‘tax’ on all of the flatulence coming out of Congress....(eye roll)
Farmers won’t pay for this, consumers will. I guess that’s the idea. Fewer people will be able to afford meat, so we won’t need as many cattle, and then there won’t be so much pollution. Problem solved.
I did some commercial fishing on the Gulf of Mexico a couple of decades back...before the government made it to costly. Heh, after a couple of weeks offshore, and being around thousands of pounds of red snapper and bait for a couple of weeks even with your best effort to avoid it , one would "inherit" a particular fishboat odor... of course as the catch was offloaded and the boat was cleaned, what a better place to visit than the "Ole Watering Hole" closest to the docks. Some of the clientele would, somewhat, look down their noses at us, and in some sort of way say "a bit fishy there Pal", but some of the "ladies" present would say, as your Grandpa so eloquently stated..."Smells like money to me."
I would hope so.
This is absolutely absurd. Taxing natural bodily functions of livestock sounds to me like trying to force us into going vegetarian. Not happening here.
And if they start taxing humans on the same basis, my family is in real trouble.
What next? Smelly tourists?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.