an interesting but kinda disgusting article about government subsidies (also known as the taxpayers' cash) flowing into the pockets of some of the politicians complaining about "socialism".....turns out some of them are quite familiar with the concept!
Most if not all small farms today rely on agricultural subsidies on either milk (dairy), grain (corn) or a variety of meat subsidies that members of both parties have approved for decades for small farms. Just so, hundreds of thousands of residents of every town, city, and state in the country, have been on welfare subsidies for decades. Is your point to selectively single out Michele Bachman, Chuck Grassley, Sam Brownback, Max Baucus, Blanche Lincoln, and Stephanie Sandlin to some standard that all this nation's politicians (local, state, and federal) should be held?
I really hope this is some attempt at humor 'cause I really, truly, honestly want to find it hard to believe that you can't see the hypocrisy of someone speaking out vehemently against government subsidies while at the same time receiving government subsidies. Lethal
Funny joke?! I'm assume you understand the OP's point, not that the subsidies are inherently wrong, but when your political life is based on "teh government is evil and socialist!", you likely shouldn't be take government money
I was not taking specific exception to the "hypocrisy" alleged (one can find "hypocrisy" from all politicians if you dig deep enough); more important, as I maintained in my prior post, I was curious if the article's author would subject this criticism to all politicians since the article was overtly partisan; i.e., the first sentence: "...well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics..."which seems strange since Michele Bachmann is the United States Representative of Minnesota's 6th Congressional District - so the "anti-government" claim is a bit over the top!
You deal with either having farm subsidies or relying on your food coming from overseas, I will take the former rather than the later. Its in the government's/people's interest and it doesn't make someone a "welfare queen".
the author did indeed identify democrats as well republicans who are scooping up these fat subsidies while posturing about the horrors of "socialism".....so the answer to your question would be "yes"
Perhaps is Macky-Mac's family was also getting the subsidies, and speaking against government involvement in the "free market"...then yes..
Just for anyone keeping score: The World According To InTheNet Working for the government -> Theft from the American Taxpayers Accepting Subsidies from the Government -> Perfectly Acceptable way to earn a living
Well, if you read the article you would have seen that she's one of the owners of the business and receives income directly from it, so there's little point in pretending this is about her deceased father-in-law (unless she's using him to hide her financial involvement). So now you've become a supporter of government cash subsidies to businesses that aren't financially viable?
My posts questioned whether the article's author* would subject such criticism of Bachmann to all politicians since the article was overtly partisan. *Yasha Levine (from Truth Dig) which self-identifies itself as "A Progressive Journal"
If it means I can eat food that was grown here: yes. I don't think we should subsidize at quite the level we do, but giving up our nation's food capacity and letting some foreign nation feed us seems a bit short sighted.
Ah, I love when people can take general stances against something, but find it perfectly acceptable when and only when it can benefit them in some way. If only we had a word for that kind of mentality...
If you don't see any problem with our food supply being controlled by foreign nations I don't know what to say. We can't live without food, we can live without cars, planes, other ********. This article seems to be anti-food subsidies, something I think is valuable if we want to keep our nation secure.
Giving up our food capacity? Most corn in the US, for example, is not even fit for human consumption but genetically engineered to be used in industrial applications (animal feed, fuel, food additives, etc.,). Tons of corn gets destroyed each year because it's more profitable in the short term to grow corn and let it rot because of the subsidy. The idea of the subsidy is good, but the execution is lacking. But now we are gettin' kinda OT. Really? It's not anti-food subsidies. It's just pointing out another example of hypocrisy by some of our elected officials. In this specific case it's pointing out people who rail against, and vote against, government subsidies yet in fact have made a lot of money from government subsidies themselves. Lethal
My apologies, please let me correct my post: Sources According To InTheNet: Contains the word "progressive" -> "overtly partisan" Contains the word "conservative" -> Legitimate news source not to be questioned That about right? My point was that you aren't capable of having an on-topic conversation on here.
Its not hypocrisy to rally against one type of subsidy while getting paid by another. Some people view some subsidies as good, others bad.
it's hypocrisy when politicians get to the point of voting subsidies for businesses they own while claiming such subsidies for others are "evil socialism" I assume you live in one of our "socialist" farm states? you people have been getting fat off the taxes paid by others for years all while claiming that businesses that can't survive on their own should be allowed to collapse.....unless it's your farm businesses.....then subsidies are suddenly a national necessity.....The idea that corporate farms, those that now dominate american agriculture, can't operate without subsidies is simply nonsense edit; it's one thing for a politician to support subsidies for some type of business, but when it comes to voting to send money to line their own pockets, it's just corruption.
So for this thread, in your view, "on-topic" would mean bashing Minnesota's Representative from the 6th District? Or defending her as I have done? Which is "on-topic" in your view?