$307 billion farm bill heading to Pres Bush's desk

We should all be seriously concerned about how Congress continually goes about doing its business. If Congress isn't wastefully throwing money out the window using one earmark after another (money they didn't budget to spend), it's passing one bill after another with out-of-control spending. From my perspective, no "systems-analysis" is being performed to determine what will happen if what's being considered is passed and put into effect.

A classic case of this type of Congressional behavior involves the $307 Billion Farm Subsidy Bill recently passed by the Congress. Do rich corporate farmers really need $5 Billion in direct payments showered upon them? What exactly do those direct payments have to do with crop productivity, or in providing some form of safety net in case prices drop? I’m just baffled. It includes $93 million in tax breaks for horse breeders, $170 million in grants for the salmon industry and some back door funding that benefits only one Montana timber company (another one of those earmarks).

As I understand it, farm income is up significantly. Since the passing of the Energy Independence and Security Act, prices for corn are soaring! Congress should have taken a serious look at this bill and shaved more than just a mere 2% off the direct payments provision. Better yet, with record high farm income combined with a world food crisis, why didn't they just scrap the farming subsidies altogether, and reallocate that $5 Billion where we really need it, like on health care for veterans or education for kids?

If I look at the Farm Subsidy Bill along side the Energy Independence and Security Act, I'm not sure which is the fuel and which is the fire ... but I'm pretty sure that it's Congress I see who's standing there with the fan in hand, ready to make sure everything goes up in flame. Because systems-thinking is involved they fail to consider each bill’s impact on other areas of the economy. That's how we end up, for example, with the prices of food going through the roof. Higher corn prices result from biofuel mandates and subsidies, which encourage farmers to plant fewer acres of wheat and soybeans—which in turn raises prices for wheat and soybeans. In addition, corn is the chief feed grain for which producers of beef, poultry, and pork must pay higher prices which will be passed along to consumers. In 2006, a bushel of corn sold for just under $2; today it's nearly $6. And that doesn't take into consideration the rising price of gasoline impacting the transportation of goods to market or the decline in worth of US Currency worldwide.

Even Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer recognized the folly of this bill. Here’s what he said, “At a time of record farm income, Congress decided to further increase farm subsidy rates, qualify more people for taxpayer support, and move programs toward more government control." Bush has promised to veto the bill, but unfortunately, it looks like this spending monstrocity just might be veto-proof.

FBI NSL documents ordered released

Another Bush Secret Project bites the dust: This isn't going to to make the Bush Administration joyful. Federal judge John D. Bates today ordered the FBI to release agency records about its abuse of the National Security Records. The Electronic Freedom Foundation filed suit in April to force the Bureau to respond to its FOIA request. The judge's order requires the FBI to process 2,500 pages of NSL related records by July 5, 2007 and then 2,500 more pages every 30 days thereafter. [EFF]

What isn't going to make the average American citizen joyous is the statement in the ruling that says "the volume of potentially responsive material is extensive (estimated at well over 100,000 pages), ...but nonetheless the search for records will not even be completed until August 24, 2007." [EFFpdf] The judge ordered that the Department of Justice complete the search for "responsive records" by August 10, 2007, and file a status report with the court on August 14th. [see also: Washington Post]

Well over 100,000 pages? Indeed, this does lend credence to charges that the previous audits of the FBI's misuse and abuse of the National Security Letter provisions of the Patriot Act are just the tip of an iceberg -- one perhaps large enough to not only sink the Titanic but the Pacific Fleet along with it. One thing seem fairly certain, this isn't the kind of news that's going to keep the Gonzales stewardship of the Department of Justice afloat much longer. Unless, of course, the agency follows the judge's order scrupulously, processing 2,500 pages per month until the entire 100,000 are done -- for the next 40 months.
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Funds for the Frozen Tundra: Congress settled the flap over earmarks, letting the Homeland Security and Military Quality of Life bills will advance with "few or no earmarks," while the next 10 remaining appropriations bills will have the earmarks fully disclosed and subject to challenge. [SFnd] In 2005 four corporations collected $1.09 billion in earmark awards; and, the top 20 corporate recipients were all defense contractors. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, BAE Systems, L-3 Communications lead the list.

There are two tables in the Sunlight Foundation report that may indicate something about the political process? Boeing spent $1.8 million on campaign contributions in the 2004 cycle and received $457 million in earmarks; Northrop Grumman received $232 million in earmarks after spending $2.1 million in contributions; Lockheed Martin reported campaign contributions of $2.0 million and received $206 million in 2005 earmarks.
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And away from the tundra -- the state of Alaska, per capita, "had more earmarked funds lavished on it than any other." $1,053.70 per person to be more precise. [SFnd] Rep. Don Young (R-AK) shrugged off the reports with a "business interests routinely gave senior membership lots of money" line, but has also retained a Washington law firm to represent his campaign." [SPI]

Just as the ice crystals began to settle from the "Bridge to Nowhere" bust in 2006, the Alaska Congressional delegation managed to regain possession of the limelight with the "Knik Arm." Developers would like a bridge to Knik Arm that might make a nice suburb of Anchorage, should it get -- what else -- a bridge. Standing to benefit from this latest largess are Rep. Young's daughter, the chief of staff to Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Senator Lisa Murkowski's state director. [Roll Call sub req] And, wouldn't you know it, the House passed the Alaska Water Resources Act of 2007 last month, a portion of which would require the Department of the Interior to do groundwater resource studies of the area. More Alaska-friendly legislation is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate. More investigations are awaiting members of the Alaska congressional delegation. Stevens [WaPo] [ADN] Young and Murkowski (contributions from Veco)