Free Republic

A MINORITY VIEW BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008, AND THEREAFTER Destroying Liberty Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." The freedom of individuals from compulsion or coercion never was, and is not now, the normal state of human affairs. The normal state for the ordinary person is tyranny, arbitrary control and abuse mainly by their own government. While imperfect in its execution, the founders of our nation sought to make an exception to this ugly part of mankind's...

WASILLA, Alaska -- The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters. The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla....

City Manager Harry Walker is calling for Chester County's housing authority to temporarily stop building housing projects and placing people into subsidized housing in the city. In an open letter sent Tuesday, Walker notes public housing is exacerbating the crime and social instability that began when the city's manufacturing jobs disappeared. "Coatesville receives more than half of the county's (housing) vouchers, which equates to over 28 percent of the city's housing stock," he wrote. "This ill-conceived policy has resulted in crimes that attack the basic rights of the residents of Coatesville." These crimes, Walker wrote, include the shootings and violent...

California's electrical utilities probably will miss the state's 2010 deadline for increasing their use of renewable power and could face a serious obstacle if Congress does not extend tax credits for wind farms and solar plants, according to a report issued Friday. By the end of 2010, the state's large, investor-owned utilities are supposed to ensure that 20 percent of the power they sell comes from such renewable sources as the sun and wind. Utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have been frantically signing contracts with wind farm and solar power plant developers to meet that deadline. But...

From Mexico to India to China, governments fearful of inflation and street protests are heavily subsidizing energy prices, particularly for diesel fuel. But the subsidies — estimated at $40 billion this year in China alone — are also removing much of the incentive to conserve fuel. The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world’s increase in oil use last year — growth that has helped drive prices to record levels. In most countries that do not subsidize fuel, high prices have caused oil demand...

- Jerry Taylor is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Virtually every claim made by T. Boone Pickens to justify the lavish subsidies he is seeking for his wind energy investments is flat wrong. First, oil imports are not the cause of high gasoline prices. On the contrary, oil imports serve to keep gasoline prices down. After all, we import oil for a reason -- it's cheaper than the domestic alternative. If we were to restrict our energy diet to energy produced in the United States, it would make domestic energy producers (like Mr. Pickens) far richer and energy...

Gasoline would be cheaper if countries ended their oil subsidies and let markets rule. In China, the government caps gas prices. Drivers there pay about half of what Americans pay. In many countries, oil prices are held artificially low, either by fiat or subsidy. The result? Consumption keeps rising, boosting global prices. About half of humanity, from India to Chile, now benefits from cut-rate petroleum prices. In 2008, these countries will account for all the growth in world oil demand, or an additional one million barrels a day, according to Deutsche Bank. Their consumption will be the highest in eight...

With grain prices soaring, farm income at record highs and the federal budget deficit widening, the subsidies and handouts given to American farmers would seem vulnerable to a serious pruning. But it appears that farmers, at least so far, have succeeded in stopping the strongest effort in years to shrink the government safety net that doles out billions of dollars to them each year. Influential interest groups -- which had toyed with supporting changes -- cut deals to get their own piece of the action. Lawmakers who supported an overhaul peeled off as the debate moved into the election year....

One of the many mandates of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls for oil companies to increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. During his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush said, “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” Let’s look at some of the “wonders” of ethanol as a replacement for gasoline. Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove. As such, it can cause major damage to automobile engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol. The water content of ethanol also risks pipeline corrosion and thus must...

Officials with the Spanish toll road operator Cintra have announced that the company has secured $430 million in loans from the U.S. government to build and operate two segments of a toll road in central Texas. Cintra officials announced the company’s financial plan for the $1.36 billion Highway 130 segments on Monday, March 10. OOIDA Senior Government Affairs Representative Mike Joyce told Land Line that the Association does raise red flags when federal dollars are used to subsidize private investors. Officials with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association are not, however, categorically opposed to a state using future toll revenue to...

AS CONGRESS and the administration wrangle over a new farm bill before the current version expires next Saturday, here are two numbers that may help clarify the issues: $5.74 and $92.3 billion. The former is the price of a bushel of corn on Wednesday, a historic high. The latter is the Agriculture Department's estimate for farm income; it is 4.1 percent above the $88.7 billion farmers made in 2007 and 51 percent above the average for the past 10 years.Yet in this flush time for farmers, House and Senate conferees are contemplating a farm bill that might cost $10 billion...

Problematic Parking: Phoenix proposes to pay dearly for an unlikely “public good” Patrick Gibbons, Goldwater Institute, March 04, 2008 Arizona’s constitution prohibits corporate subsidies by outlawing “any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual, association or corporation.” Despite this, last year the City of Phoenix awarded a $97.4 million “incentive” to Klutznick Company, the developers of the CityNorth mall in north Phoenix. To stay within the bounds of the constitution and past Arizona Supreme Court decisions, the City has to prove it is buying a public good at an equal market value to the monetary incentive. In...

This is one of my recent columns, addressing ill-advised corn subsidies... From the 10 December 2007 Lockport Union Sun and Journal (Lockport, NY) CORN SUBSIDIES SHOULD GO DOWN By Bob Confer Federal subsidization of agriculture has become a necessary evil, more or less out of its own existence. Such is the outcome when government so greatly interferes in capitalistic endeavors: once the dominoes are set into motion by its "invisible hand" the damage is done and the pieces can never be put back to normal. We cannot go back to a true free market economy in regard to our foodstuff...

If you want to dismay an economist, just mention the phrase "national champion." The phrase won't call to mind great sporting heroes, but wheezing corporate behemoths protected from domestic competition, propped up with generous government subsidies and shielded behind trade barriers. Why would the government ever choose to provide such handouts? The justification is that a "national champion," strengthened with subsidies and protected from pesky irritations like local competitors and creditors, should be well equipped to beat rivals on the global stage. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. "No industrial policy has been more comprehensively discredited than the notion that...

LAVISH subsidies and high electricity prices have turned Britain’s onshore wind farms into an extraordinary moneyspinner, with a single turbine capable of generating £500,000 of pure profit per year. According to new industry figures, a typical 2 megawatt (2MW) turbine can now generate power worth £200,000 on the wholesale markets - plus another £300,000 of subsidy from taxpayers. Since such turbines cost around £2m to build and last for 20 or more years, it means they can pay for themselves in just 4-5 years and then produce nothing but profit. The lucrative outlook has led to a surge in planning...

A monstrous week! From Cloverfield to monster primary campaigns, not to mention the monstrous problem with the economy. The scariest thing isn’t that the economy’s sick … it’s that the government’s playing doctor! Uncle Jay explains the government’s “stimulus” plan to make our economy as secure as our borders. http://www.unclejayexplains.com/

John McCain did America a favor last night and lost the Michigan Primary to Mitt Romney. That was thoughtful of him, because I believe his legislative history on taxation and immigration would make him a potentially detrimental US President. However, I’m bothered by the manner in which he lost last night’s Michigan Primary. John McCain lost because he told people the truth. He explained to Michigan that their political leadership, their unions and their corporate executives had spent the last 30 years trashing the Michigan economy. He told them that they were not going to get back the jobs that...

I never knew that payment of "sales taxes" to state and local governments was negotiable. Business owners may be allowed to keep them for themselves, sometimes. The power of government to cut side deals with the biggest business owners is the theme of this book. It particularly focuses on those deals that don't particularly benefit taxpayers, but aren't often questioned or receive much public attention. Conclusion of the article, cut and pasted: "...as Adam Smith predicted, the pursuit of subsidies is causing business to make decisions that otherwise would be unsound, Johnston writes. “Somehow, we need to break this cycle,...

A multi-billion euro showcase project aimed at getting Europe’s trains to run seamlessly from one country to another is unnecessarily complex and has been poorly managed, prompting a series of costly delays, according to leading figures in the sector. The European Rail Traffic Management System has been hampered by the need to accommodate widely differing operating practices from across the Continent into a single system, according to industry figures who now question whether it was wise for Brussels to press ahead with the venture without first integrating rules. The project is the latest in a long line of ambitious, pan-European...

Kenny Gamble is best known for being "the architect of the Philly Soul Sound."...But Gamble is also the architect of a planned stealth Islamist enclave in Philadelphia where he is better known in Muslim circles as Brother Luqman Abdul Haqq. Gamble has admitted that he intends to bring about the Muslim community in South Philadelphia through his "Universal Companies" and proclaims that his state and federally subsidized funded building endeavors are part of an Islamist blueprint, "We are not down here just for Universal-we are down here for Islam." In 1975 after a personal crisis Gamble converted to Islam and...

sugar tariffs, put in place by law and enforced by the USDA, are so complicated that many people give up worrying about it. After all, paying $2.25 for a five pound bag of sugar is no big deal. Unless you consider that we could be paying as low as a dollar for that five pound bag, and wholesale purchases of sugar by companies like Coca-Cola, Heinz, and Kraft would pay even less. So here's the Sugar Tariff in action: First, USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation lends money each year to sugar cane processors at a specific rate per pound of sugar....

This is the section of the Farm bill that just passed the Senate that provides $30,000,000 in taxpayer money to Asparagus growers. S.2302 Food and Energy Security Act of 2007 SEC. 1852. MARKET LOSS ASSISTANCE FOR ASPARAGUS PRODUCERS. (a) In General- As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall make payments to producers of the 2007 crop of asparagus for market loss resulting from imports during the 2004 through 2007 crop years. (b) Payment Rate- The payment rate for a payment under this section shall be based on the reduction in revenue received...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Senate on Friday approved a $286 billion farm bill with an election-year expansion of subsidies for growers and food stamps for the poor. The bill, passed on a 79-14 vote, expands subsidies for wheat, barley, oat, soybeans and several other crops and creates new grants for vegetable and fruit growers. It also increase loan rates for sugar producers, extends dairy programs and provide more dollars for renewable energy and conservation programs to protect environmentally sensitive farmland over the next five years. President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation, saying it costs too much and should...

AFTER MUCH arcane political wrangling and procedural disputation, the Senate began debating a new five-year farm bill on Friday. Much of the price tag, projected at $288 billion, is accounted for by food stamps and other nutrition programs, but tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to farmers are included, too. Notwithstanding the fact that crop prices are surging and farmers are doing well, supporters of the bill, both in the Senate and the House, are hoping to enact this gigantic Christmas present with as little fuss as possible. ...Under the pending farm bill, the U.S. sugar industry would get...

The United States produces a great deal of food each year. Actually, it overproduces food. This is the result of federal farm policies that pay farmers by the amount of crop they produce each year. This results in lower prices for grains, not only in America, but around the world. And the rest of the world isn’t happy about it. So why should I care what the rest of the world thinks? The main reason is national security. It takes a while to get there, but stick with me.

There is a combination in Washington that draws fraud, waste and abuse like bees to honey. The combination is free money plus government bureaucracy. The federal farm subsidy program has created some stories that are as unbelievable as they are outrageous.

When they debated economic issues in Dearborn, Mich., most of the Republican presidential candidates talked about how good the economic statistics look. Mike Huckabee was the candidate who offered sympathy for the public’s anxieties. So it has been throughout the campaign. Huckabee, more than the other Republican candidates, understands that even in a time of economic growth Americans are worried about their health care, their wages, and their country’s future. -----snip----- Unfortunately, what Huckabee offers by way of solutions is a mixture of populism and big-government liberalism; the common theme of his policies is that they are half-baked. If an...

Three private groups are now in the hunt to build U.S. 281 toll lanes, but two big foreign companies competing just a short while ago to build and lease a larger toll network here have dropped out. The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted Wednesday to let all three teams submit plans to rebuild U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 into a tollway with free access roads by 2012. It's the fledging agency's first project. "Goodness knows we have been two and a half years getting here," board member Bob Thompson said. "Maybe it's even more important to see the...

THESE ARE good times for American farmers. Net farm income in 2007 will be more than $87 billion, a record, according to the Agriculture Department's latest projections. And in 2006, the average farm household already earned $80,000, about 20 percent more than the average non-farm family. It would seem time to finally to phase out the costly and irrational system of federal subsidies that props up the farm sector -- all in the name of a "safety net" for beleaguered yeomen. A disproportionate share of the dollars goes to a relative handful of agribusinesses: In 2005, 9 percent of farms...

"EVERYONE does it, so let's be gentlemen and settle our dispute out of court." That's the gist of the arguments Airbus makes regarding the European Union-U.S. dispute over aerospace subsidies. Trouble is, everyone does not do it, if by "it" we mean the use of government "launch aid" to subsidize a private company in a manner that's inconsistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization. [snip]

It is believed, with some cause, that partisanship is the reason "nothing gets done" in Washington. So what if there was an issue, involving the poorest of the poor, on which there was bipartisan agreement, and still nothing got done? Our most battle-scarred readers will guess immediately what is at issue -- farm subsidies! At the moment, the sun and moon have aligned to form a left-right coalition to raise the lot of some of Africa's farmers. Arguably the greatest misfortune to befall these farmers is their crop: cotton. In the U.S., the lords of King Cotton still have the...

MINNEAPOLIS - As the estimated cost of recovering from an interstate bridge collapse surges past $400 million, survivors of the deadly disaster just wish they could get a few thousand dollars here and there to make ends meet. About 30 of the more than 100 people injured in the Aug. 1 collapse, which killed 13 people, meet weekly to talk about the troubles it's caused them. This past week, one man spoke of his struggles with a $41,000 medical bill. Others mentioned missed paychecks. That they've all had such problems getting aid irritated fellow survivor Kimberly J. Brown enough that...

Economics teaches us that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Anyone that tells you differently is probably trying to sell you something. In this case, the “something being sold” is bio-fuels. Bio-fuels, the transformation of corn, sugar, soybeans and other crops into motor fuels, have taken on a new sense of urgency due to, in part, the global warming consensus. Global warming advocates push regulations that mandate ethanol additives in cars, as well as other policies that encourage the U.S. to consume more bio-fuels. Furthermore, these policies are sold as a win-win policy that reduces the country’s...

I received an unsolicited e-mail this week from a neighbor of the Frost family, the family held up by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the entitlement expansionist Democrats. He wrote: They’re good people. Terribly misguided, pathetically leftist buffoons, but still good people. It was a terrible accident and Bonnie is quite beat up with guilt over the events. Lots of neighbors pitched in to cook meals and help out… Bonnie works half time doing freelance editorial work and Halsey, an incredibly disorganized lovable goofball, just can’t seem to hold down a proper job or, when he’s tried, to run a...

SNIP The onslaught began over the weekend, a week after 12-year-old Graeme Frost delivered the Democrats' weekly radio address with a plea to Bush to sign the bill. A contributor to the conservative Web site Free Republic noted Graeme's enrollment in the private Park School and the sale of a smaller rowhouse on the Frosts' block for $485,000 this year and questioned whether the family should be taking advantage of the state program. SNIP The Frosts say the description of their family's circumstances now circulating is misleading. Halsey, they say, is a self-employed woodworker - he has no employees -...

NEVADA, Iowa - Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson acknowledged Wednesday that he's reversed his position on ethanol subsidies, saying his new stand is based on changes in energy prices and security issues. Thompson spoke about the issue after touring an ethanol plant, one of dozens in Iowa, which leads the nation in ethanol production. The actor and former Tennessee senator was finishing a five-day trip to the state, where precinct caucuses begin the presidential nominating process. Meeting with reporters, Thompson acknowledged that he had switched his position on subsidies for ethanol. "I have voted against subsidies in the Senate," said...

Economics: President Bush has signed a student loan bill that's being hailed as much-needed assistance for current and prospective college students. It looks like they caught a break — but only if they don't look too close. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act expands financial aid by $20 billion, including federal grant increases. It eventually will cut the 6.8% interest rate on federally subsidized loans to 3.4% by July 1, 2011; set annual loan payments at 15% of what Washington considers the discretionary income of students who go into low-paying jobs; and forgive the debts of those workers who...

With all the madness in the world, I meditated Tuesday on two matters of great gratitude. One is that through vigilance and good fortune we have, so far, gone six years without another major attack on U.S. soil. The other is that I wasn't one of the Texas officials who was forced to attend a workshop in Austin in which PR flacks would try (under a $20,000 contract) to teach me techniques for selling Gov. Perry's massive toll road boondoggle. It was a small part of a $7 million to $9 million campaign that will include feel-good ads pushing Perry's...

Governments need to scrap subsidies for biofuels, as the current rush to support alternative energy sources will lead to surging food prices and the potential destruction of natural habitats, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will warn on Tuesday. The OECD will say in a report to be discussed by ministers on Tuesday that politicians are rigging the market in favour of an untried technology that will have only limited impact on climate change. “The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits,” say the authors...

On an average weekday, full-time university and college students spent 3.2 hours engaged in educational activities [including class time], 2.8 hours working, 8.4 hours sleeping, and spent 3.9 hours in leisure and sports activities. (These data are four-year averages for 2003 to 2006).

By now you've probably heard that a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report states: From 1999 through 2005, the USDA "paid $1.1 billion in farm payments in the names of 172,801 deceased individuals. ... 40 percent went to those who had been dead for three or more years, and 19 percent to those dead for seven or more years." One dead farmer got more than $400,000 during those years. And they say you can't take it with you. Defending the USDA, the GAO adds, "The complex nature of some farming operations -- such as entities embedded within other entities --...

from http://www.american.com/archive/2007/august-0807/backing-back-to-school Backing 'Back to School' By Phil Brand Congressional subsidies for college tuition encourage students to over-consume. In a few weeks more than 17 million students will head begin or continue pursuing higher education in over 4,200 degree-granting American colleges and universities. For the school year they will pay on average more than $12,000 for tuition, room and board at four-year public schools and more than $30,000 for an education at a private college or university. Many of these students will graduate—eventually. But many others will not. Is their struggle to earn a college degree worth it? Not everyone...

We in the Land of Lincoln have many matters about which to fret. Will the budget impasse between the Democratic governor and the Democratic General Assembly get resolved? Will Illinois ever join the 48 states that permit concealed carrying of weapons, thereby giving law-abiding citizens a fighting chance against the bad guys? What week of September (or possibly August) will the Cubs choke this year? Will Gov. Milorad Blagojevich try sticking taxpayers with another $600 makeup bill? There’s so very much for us to ponder. Happily, we don’t have to worry if our fair state is getting its “fair share”...

While the TV cameras and newspaper headlines have been focused on the Senate's struggle with high-profile immigration issues, a less-visible drama has been unfolding on Capitol Hill that also provides a clear test of whether the 110th Congress is capable of producing good public policy. The farm bill, which governs a wide range of federal programs from farm subsidies to food stamps, is being rewritten this year. Previous farm bills, especially the 2002 version, are noted for their smoke-and-mirror rhetoric, fancy procedural footwork and bipartisan lack of political courage. So far, this year's farm-bill drama appears to be no exception...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reportedly distributed $1.1 billion to estates or companies of deceased farmers from 1999 to 2005. The USDA routinely neglected to conduct required reviews to make sure payments were properly disbursed, The Washington Post reported Monday

Every five to seven years Congress grapples with sweeping legislation that is commonly called "the farm bill." But that simple name belies the complexity of the bill, which is broken into 10 sections that extend well beyond mere subsidies for farmers—the most controversial and perennially debated initiative in the bill. These categories, or "titles," also include energy, trade, conservation, nutrition and rural development, in addition to agricultural commodities. With so much covered in the farm bill, a variety and multitude of interests are flocking to Capitol Hill to make sure they receive a bite of the money allocated for the...

<p>More than a quarter million black and Hispanic families are expected to lose their homes in the next few years due to foreclosure. For many, the financial trouble will be traceable to a mortgage they should never have been given.</p>

An enduring myth about farm subsidies is that they go to needy family farms. But in reality, price supports have accelerated the demise of small farms because the benefits go to the most profitable growers, says the Wall Street Journal. According to Citizens Against Government Waste: -- Three-quarters of the payments under the 2002 farm bill have gone to the richest 10 percent of farmers. -- More than half of the $1.9 billion sugar program lines the pockets of the wealthiest 1 percent of plantation owners. -- In 2003 the biggest single recipient of farm aid was Riceland Foods in...

PARIS -- Two French senators on Wednesday blamed the woes at Airbus' parent company on bad management and recommended a bigger role for French and German governments in decision-making.The findings in a report by French senators Jean-Francois Le Grand and Roland Ries, who have been investigating the company for six months, faulted national rivalries, a clumsy management structure, lack of surveillance by shareholders DaimlerChrysler AG and Lagardere Groupe SCA, and too much autonomy at the plane maker for problems with the superjumbo A380. "The A380 was a catastrophe, both industrially and commercially," Ries said in an interview after the report's...

<p>PHILOMATH, Ore. -- Since the early 1960s, a foundation created by a wealthy couple named Rex and Ethel Clemens has fulfilled an extraordinary promise: college scholarships for any Philomath High School graduate who resides in this faded logging town.</p> <p>The promise has broadened the horizons of Philomath's sons and daughters, helping to lift the local college-attendance rate, from next to nothing to about 69%. Over the years, the foundation has paid $15.5 million in tuition. Right now, 520 students are on its rolls.</p>