[Peace-discuss] how many senators does it take to screw us? - Zero Hedge

[E. Wayne Johnson]

"Bipartisanship is when the Evil Party and the Stupid Party get together 
and do something that is Stupid and Evil" - (after *Tom Woods*)///
/

/"Everything about ethanol is good, good, good."/ -- *Senator Chuck 
Grassley, Iowa*

/"This is not just hype --- it's dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol 
doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current 
ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline 
consumption --- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn 
crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and 
raising the threat of hunger in the Third World."/ -- *Jeff Goodell
*

*(its a higher percentage today than when Goodell spoke out)
*


Article by Jim Quinn, for Zero Hedge.
(Full article here 
<http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-how-many-senators-does-it-take-screw-taxpayer>)

When bipartisanship breaks out in Washington DC, check to make sure your 
wallet is still in your pocket. Every time you fill up your car this 
winter you are participating in the biggest taxpayer swindle in history. 
Forcing consumers to use domestically produced ethanol is one of the 
single biggest boondoggles ever committed by the corrupt brainless twits 
in Washington DC. Ethanol prices have soared 30% in the last year as the 
supplies of corn have plunged. Only a policy created in Washington DC 
could drive up the prices of gasoline and food, with the added benefits 
of costing the American taxpayer billions in tax subsidies and killing 
people in 3rd world countries.

The grand lame duck Congress tax compromise extended a 45-cent incentive 
to ethanol refiners for each gallon of the fuel blended with gasoline 
and renewed a 54-cent tariff on Brazilian imports. The extension of 
these subsidies, besides costing American taxpayers $6 billion per year, 
has the added benefit of driving up food costs across the globe, causing 
food riots in Tunisia, and resulting in the starving of poor peasants 
throughout the world. This taxpayer boondoggle is a real feather in the 
cap of that fiscally conservative curmudgeon Senator Charley Grassley. 
He was joined in this noble effort by another fiscal conservative, 
presidential hopeful John Thune. It seems these guys hate wasteful 
spending, except when it benefits their states. The bipartisanship in 
this effort was truly touching, as Democrats Kent Conrad and Tom Harkin 
also brought home the pork for their states.

...This year, the US will harvest approximately 12.5 million bushels of 
corn. More than 42% will be used to feed livestock in the US, another 
40% will be used to produce government mandated ethanol fuel, 2% will be 
used for food products, and 16% is exported to other countries. Ending 
stocks are down 963 million bushels from last year. The stocks-to-use 
ratio is projected at 5.5%, the lowest since 1995/96 when it dropped to 
5.0%. As you can see in the chart below, poor developing countries are 
most dependent on imports of corn from the US. Food as a percentage of 
income for peasants in developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia 
exceeds 50%. When the price of corn rises 75% in one year, poor people 
starve...

The amount of grain needed to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol just 
once can feed one person for an entire year. The average income of the 
owners of the world's 940 million automobiles is at least ten times 
larger than that of the world's 2 billion hungriest people. In the 
competition between cars and hungry people for the world's harvest, the 
car is destined to win. In March 2008, a report commissioned by the 
Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel Policy  estimated that the 
bio-fuels mandates passed by Congress cost the U.S. economy more than 
$100 billion from 2006 to 2009. The report declared that /"The policy 
favoring ethanol and other bio-fuels over food uses of grains and other 
crops acts as a regressive tax on the poor."/ A 2008 Organization for 
Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) issued its report on 
bio-fuels that concluded: /"Further development and expansion of the 
bio-fuels sector will contribute to higher food prices over the medium 
term and to food insecurity for the most vulnerable population groups in 
developing countries."/ These forecasts are coming to fruition today...

(Full article here 
<http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-how-many-senators-does-it-take-screw-taxpayer>)
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