Changing Washington, Not

Here’s why electing a Democrat to the White House is not going to create the wonderfulness that all of the dreamers are predicting. Here’s why it doesn’t matter who wins the Democratic nomination, or who wins the general election in November. The example deals with farm subsidies, but it is only one example.

Farmers are projected to have more than $96 billion income in 2008, an increase of 40% over their income in 2006. My income did not go up 40% in two years; it did not go up 4% in two years. How did your income do?

Farm real estate prices increased 21% in the fourth quarter of 2007. The value of my home decreased somewhere about 20% in that same period. How did your real estate value do in 2007?

Congress, however, does not think that farm subsidies need to be reduced. On the contrary, they think that those subsidies need to be extended from the usual 5 years to 10 years and increased over the present level by $10 billion. So on top of subsidies for biofuels, which raises the prices of what farmers are growing, increases the profits that farmers are making and increases the value of what farmers own, Congress wants to increase the amounts of the subsidies that it pays directly to those farmers.

But this story is even more sickening than it appears at first glance.

Where is that $10 billion coming from? What’s getting cut? Food stamps.

In addition to raising the profits of farmers, the biofuel programs that Congress subsidizes raise the cost of the food we eat, so the poor get hit twice over; it’s costing them more than ever to feed their families, and they will now receive less help doing it.

Okay, you think this is coming from the “Blue Dogs” or from the Senate with its insufficient majority and arcane rules. You think that increasing the Democratic majority will solve the problem because it’s really Republicans remaining in Congress that are actually doing this. You think wrong. This plan comes from Nancy Pelosi herself.

Why would Pelosi advocate such a bill? Because she is concerned that a change in farm policy could cost Democrats control of the House.

This is the Democrats who talk about fighting the good fight to help people who are struggling, who preach about economic equality, and who are now advocating taking food out of the mouths of the poor to sustain an economic giveaway program to maintain their hold on power. This is the Democratic Congress that you elected to change the way that things are done in Washington, doing things the same old way.

This is how broken and unfixable our government really is.