Posted on 12/30/2015 9:09:11 AM PST by Isara
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Senator Ted Cruz, already under attack in Iowa for opposing government support for ethanol, has won the support of an out-of-state conservative leader, Ken Cuccinelli II, who on Tuesday aimed an unusually blistering attack on "Big Corn"...
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"The Governor of Iowa is a Big Corn cheerleader, and his son is running a super PAC hitting Cruz for not bowing to worship Big Corn..." wrote Mr. Cucinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia.
He described an agricultural forum in Iowa early in the year attended by presidential hopefuls as a "Big corn kiss up confab."
Mr. Cruz is leading Iowa polls of likely Republican caucus-goers despite opposing federal support of ethanol, a major Iowa industry, which he calls corporate welfare and a distortion of the free market. The ethanol industry has paid for tough anti-Cruz radio and TV ads in Iowa, which accuse the Texas senator of hypocrisy for backing tax breaks for oil and gas drillers, an important issue in his home state.
The group run by Eric Branstad aims to make support for the Renewable Fuel Standard, a federal mandate that ethanol be blended into gasoline, a litmus test for candidates in the Feb. 1 caucuses.
Every Republican caucus winner in the last quarter-century has been a strong ethanol supporter. But Mr. Cruz's polling lead suggests the industry's popular and political clout may be ebbing. Mr. Cruz has never tried to play down his call to end the fuel standard, unlike some rivals.
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"Suddenly, the special interests are facing the real possibility that their gravy train could get derailed," Mr. Cuccinelli writes. "How? If Senator Ted Cruz becomes President Ted Cruz, that's how."
Federal subsidies for corn, he adds, in what he calls a paraphrase of Mr. Cruz, are "bad for the environment, bad for food prices, bad for America, and are corrupting our politics."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Only Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were able to resist falling to their knees for the ethanol lobby.
Cruz 2016!
Cuccinelli? Wow, that REALLY helps Cruz. /s
Let corn be turned to fuel without taxpayer money, if it can be done.
It can’t be done. That’s why it has to be subsidized and mandated.
And therein lies the problem. LOL
Look at the price of a gallon of moonshine as an example of what ethanol will cost without subsidies.
You have a real problem with conservatives don’t you Karl?
Corn is not your chainsaws friend.
Virginia primary is March 1st... So cuccinelli and e.w. Jackson’s the endorsement will help a little. Religious conservatives in Virginia are starting to Cruz!
That is okay, but I would prefer he draw a line in the sand over Muslim [terrorists} immigrants. The country can survive ethanol subsidies. The country cannot survive importing terrorist armies and flooding the nation with third world immigrants.
Not that we upstanding members of an honorable society would ever have any reason to know such a fact.
Personally, I think the government should pay for the production of ethyl alcohol and the production of charred oaken barrels in which it is to be stored for 7-10 years, and the free distribution to any American who desires it. I don’t believe it should be used in a non-human internal combustion engine.
Cruz is RIGHT!!!
LOL, but the liquor store lobby would be upset!
Nor is it a friend to your $1,000 Inverter.
Every form of energy is subsidized, singling out one while favoring others is inconsistent. Let us know when Cruz comes out against all subsidies to the oil and gas industry.
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Hey troll, Cruz is vocally against all subsidies.
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My inverters don’t use corn.
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