Just when it seems federal spending couldn’t get more preposterous, Congress gives us the “cheese bailout.” In order to support dairy farmers, the feds are buying an estimated 11 million pounds of surplus cheese. The cost to taxpayers? About $20 million. Buying cheese that nobody wants is just a small slice of federal risk-related subsidies […]
Now a week out from the Iowa caucuses, the politics of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—the federal mandate requiring fuel refiners to blend biofuels into their gas and diesel fuels—are nearing their quadrennial high watermark. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad exhibited as much last week, publicly calling for the defeat of presidential candidates who support eventually ending the […]
If Ted Cruz holds on to his slim lead in Iowa, he may be the first politician in ages in either party to win the Hawkeye presidential caucuses without supporting federal ethanol supports. Cruz has been under constant assault from the ethanol lobby to get behind the mandates that ethanol be blended into gasoline. The […]
The World Trade Organisation’s Doha Round of negotiations has often seemed like going absolutely nowhere. There are two major reasons for this: one is the decidedly democratic nature of the forum, where every country has one vote and also an absolute veto. One country can simply say no and that’s that: it’s not the majority […]
U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wants to portray himself as a fierce opponent of the status quo in Washington. He regularly excoriates American corporations for not paying their “fair share” of taxes and for buying politicians. Earlier this summer, he was the sole member of the Democratic caucus to vote against […]