No Infrastructure or Jobs; Just Corporate Welfare

Political Animal:

You’ll want to read what Ronald Klain had to say about Trump’s infrastructure plan.

…Trump’s plan is not really an infrastructure plan. It’s a tax-cut plan for utility-industry and construction-sector investors, and a massive corporate welfare plan for contractors. The Trump plan doesn’t directly fund new roads, bridges, water systems or airports, as did Hillary Clinton’s 2016 infrastructure proposal. Instead, Trump’s plan provides tax breaks to private-sector investors who back profitable construction projects. These projects (such as electrical grid modernization or energy pipeline expansion) might already be planned or even underway. There’s no requirement that the tax breaks be used for incremental or otherwise expanded construction efforts; they could all go just to fatten the pockets of investors in previously planned projects.

The Moral Hazards of Being Rich

The real, tangible hazards of rich people of course are to the rest of us, who have to survive on their tiny leavings.

Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo:

Not all political deflections are bright and shiny. Hyperventilating over public aid to those at the bottom of the wealth curve is an oldie but goody. Is Wall Street defrauding the planet to the tune of trillions? Well, but LOOK! Over there. A poor person. Eating!

Properly incentivizing the poor is a perennial handwringer for Fox News and other watchdogs of personal morality on the right (who otherwise think the government should mind its own damned business). Nicholas Kristof, however, spares some column inches this morning on the incentives driving our beleaguered corporate persons at the top. He gets downright snarky about it:

A study to be released Thursday says that for each dollar America’s 50 biggest companies paid in federal taxes between 2008 and 2014, they received $27 back in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.

Goodness! What will that do to their character? Won’t that sap their initiative?

The study in question comes from Oxfam. The group finds:

• From 2008 – 2014 the 50 largest US companies collectively received $27 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts for every $1 they paid in federal taxes.
• From 2008 – 2014 these 50 companies spent approximately$2.6 billion on lobbying while receiving nearly $11.2 trillion in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.
• Even as these 50 companies earned nearly $4 trillion in profits globally from 2008 – 2014, they used offshore tax havens to lower their effective global tax rate to just 26.5%, well below the statutory rate of 35% and even below average levels paid in other developed countries. Only 5 of 50 companies paid the full 35% corporate tax rate.
• These companies relied on an opaque and secretive network of more than 1600 disclosed subsidiaries in tax havens to stash about $1.4 trillion offshore. In addition to the 1600 known subsidiaries, the companies may have failed to disclose thousands of additional subsidiaries to the Securities and Exchange Commission because of weak reporting requirements.
• Their lobbying appears to have offered an incredible return on investment. For every $1 spent on lobbying, these 50 companies collectively received $130 in tax breaks and more than $4,000 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.

Such behavior deprives countries of needed funds for everything from education to infrastructure, and feeds the rampant economic inequality that has become palpable. But what's worse, of course, is what these perverse incentives must be doing to corporate persons' souls. Kristof continues:

The Panama Papers should be a wake-up call, shining a light on dysfunctional tax codes around the world — but much of the problem has been staring us in the face. Among the 500 corporations in the S.&P. 500-stock index, 27 were both profitable in 2015 and paid no net income tax globally, according to an analysis by USA Today.

Those poor companies! Think how the character of those C.E.O.s must be corroding! And imagine the plunging morale as board members realize that they are “takers” not “makers.”

But that's the thing about economic inequality. It also means different rules for those on top and those at the bottom. Sharper sticks must be brought to bear to ensure the "takers" are kept off the public dole. To save their souls, of course. Those at the top get sweeter carrots. Much, much sweeter.

KY's Other Federal Judge Gives Freakazoids $18 Million Blow Job

And guess which teabaggin' guv who is slashing state services 9 percent has no problem giving $18 million tax dollars to proudly discriminatory purveyors of intellectual child abuse.

Crooks and Liars:

Yonder in Kentucky, creationists have been busy bees building a giant ark and other fun exhibits which they plan to use to show all the homeschooled children how humans roamed the earth beside dinosaurs, among other things.

All of that would be just fine, except now they expect the state of Kentucky to subsidize it, and a federal judge has ordered the state to do just that.

The owner of the park refuses to comply with state non-discrimination statutes, which is why the state pulled the tax subsidies away.

The state of Kentucky must give millions of dollars in tax subsidies to a Noah’s Ark theme park owned by a creationist ministry, even though that ministry refuses to comply with the state’s request not to engage in hiring discrimination, according to an opinion by a George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench. Under Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove’s opinion, the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AiG) stands to gain up to $18 million

....

Though Kentucky officials were initially enthusiastic about providing these subsidies to help fund the Ark Encounter, they later reversed course citing fears that the state constitution does not permit tax incentives to be used to “advance religion,” as well as concerns that AiG “intends to discriminate in hiring its employees based on religion.” AiG sued, alleging various First Amendment theories.

Well, that's cheeky of them. They want to fall back on the First Amendment as an excuse for discrimination, but want the state to give them millions of dollars in tax subsidies to keep their enterprise running. And Federal Judge Van Tatenhove agrees.

Judge Van Tatenhove’s decision in favor of AiG is on much shakier ground, however, when he claims that AiG is entitled to the subsidy even if it wants to engage in employment discrimination. He roots this decision largely in a non-sequitur about what AiG’s obligations would be if they were sued by an employee alleging discrimination. As the judge notes, federal law exempts “a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society” from the federal ban on employment discrimination “with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society of its activities.” Thus, a religious group like AiG typically has the right to hire only members of a particular faith without having to face a federal lawsuit.

Take this one up the appellate chain fast, or we're going to see a lot more of this creative blending of church and state, particularly in the states that can least afford it.

No appeal.  Guess why.

So the state will of course appeal, yes? No. We regret to inform you that between the time this lawsuit was filed and now, Kentucky knuckle-draggers elected known teabaggin’, Bible-humpin’, cock-fightin’ sack of shit Republican Matt Bevin as their governor, and, well, bad news:

“We are pleased the Court has ruled in favor of the Ark project. This Administration does not support discrimination against any worthy economic development projects,” said Jessica Ditto, a spokesman for the governor.

Elections have consequences, MORANS.

Which Govt. Expenditure Pisses You Off More?

No coincidence that the two biggest are also the two that piss me off the most.

Down with Tyranny:

What Would $700 Billion a Year Buy?

That's how much you and I - and all American taxpayers - are giving away to fossil-fuel companies making obscene profits even before those subsidies.

How many jobs for teachers and firefighters and public maintenance workers and home care aides for your elderly parents?

How many new - safe! - bridges and highways and railways?

How much higher education for young people and health care for poor people?

How much of everything that the filthy rich don't need but you and I do?

The Nation:

The resulting compliance on the part of Congress and the White House has led the federal government to increase its subsidies for fossil-fuel production—paid for with our tax dollars—to $18.5 billion a year in 2012, according to the NGO Oil Change International, while restricting solar, wind, energy efficiency, and other climate-friendly alternatives to a relative pittance. No less important, Washington has declined to put a price on the fossil-fuel industry’s carbon pollution. Instead, it’s the public that pays the full cost of coal production in the form of at least 13,000 excess deaths and tens of thousands of heart attacks and asthma attacks every year. This additional favor to fossil-fuel production boosts the value of the total public subsidy to a staggering $700 billion a year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Big Coal Stealing Even More of Your Money

It's really easier to just remember that all fossil fuel companies are evil motherfuckers, all corporations are blatant thieves, and all the rich are parasites.

 

Think Progress:

A seemingly low-profile proposal from a little-known natural resources agency in the Department of the Interior (DOI) has attracted a record-breaking 210,000 public comments from taxpayers, who argue that they are not receiving a fair share of revenues from the mining of coal on U.S. public lands.

The public outcry came in response to a proposed rule from DOI’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue that aims to close a regulatory loophole that allows coal companies to avoid paying royalties owed to taxpayers. Critics argue that the proposed rule does not go far enough to guarantee that western states and U.S. taxpayers are receiving a fair value for the coal mined on America’s public lands, due to additional subsidies given to coal companies under the rule.

“We just got done with this Legislature where there were a lot of needs that couldn’t be met,” said Steve Charter, a rancher from north of Billings, Montana told the Billings Gazette. Meanwhile, he said, “since 2008 Montana has lost over $30 million in coal royalties that should have been revenue to the state.”

In January, a report from the Center for American Progress uncovered evidence that coal companies are dodging royalty payments owed to taxpayers by selling coal to their own subsidiary companies and then paying royalties on artificially low prices.

Reviews of the Department of the Interior’s coal program have also found that coal companies are taking advantage of up to $1 billion a year in royalty rate reductions and subsidies for washing and transporting coal.

 

$1.18 Trillion in Stolen Tax Dollars Found

Now we just have to take it back.

Firedoglake:

- A new report found tax breaks to major corporations equal to amount of discretionary budget for the current fiscal year (and larger than the budget deficit.)

Freakazoid Subsidy Breaking Kentucky's Budget

Kentucky isn't broke any more than the federal government is: there are tens of millions if not more in public tax dollars that state government gives away to private and religious interests every year.

Stop that inexcusably and unconstitutional shit first, Governor Beshear and Speaker Stumbo, then we can talk about budget cuts and tax hikes.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Over the last six years, as the state of Kentucky shrank public education funding, it spent nearly $18 million to pay for student busing at private, mostly religious schools in two dozen counties, according to state financial records.

SNIP

The state's spending is about to grow. In March, amid lobbying by the Catholic Conference of Kentucky and other groups, the General Assembly voted to boost the private school bus subsidy to $3.5 million annually, up from $2.9 million, a 17 percent increase.

Kentucky's constitution prohibits state funds from aiding "any church, sectarian or denominational school," which prompts a few state lawmakers to question the legality of the subsidy. But they say the subsidy is politically popular in many legislative districts and unlikely to be challenged.

"Do I have a problem with private school students getting public money to get to private schools? Yes, I do," said state Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, who is chairwoman of the House budget subcommittee that oversees K-12 schools.

"These are families who have chosen not to attend public schools, which is certainly their right. But we are under no obligation as a state to pay for their choice," Flood said. "Meanwhile, the transportation needs of our public school systems are pressing and growing, and I would like for that money to be redirected to help our public schools."

The 100 Companies That Stole All Your Money

From Firedoglake:

- It seems the Fortune 100 companies got $1.2 trillion from the government in corporate welfare

Pro-Hemp Farm Bill Starves Children While Enriching Big Ag

Yeah, the fucking farm bill passed the U.S. House yesterday, and the hemp provision was about the only good thing in it.

From the press release:

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer applauded news that the proposed federal farm bill contains language that would take a giant step toward restoring industrial hemp production to Kentucky and the nation.

“For months, we have tried to get some assurance at the federal level that Kentucky producers can grow industrial hemp without fear of government harassment or prosecution. This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Commissioner Comer said. “I appreciate Sen. Mitch McConnell’s efforts to get hemp language in the farm bill. Without his protection of the language, there is no way it would have survived the process. I’m also grateful to Sen. Rand Paul and Reps. John Yarmuth and Thomas Massie for supporting our efforts from the beginning. And I again want to thank state Sen. Paul Hornback for having the courage to sponsor Senate Bill 50, which makes industrial hemp production legal under Kentucky law.

But what the bill really does is ensure that working poor families have neither food nor heat this record-breaking winter. ADM, ConAgra and the Koch Brothers meanwhile are burning piles of stolen-from-the-taxpayers $100 bills and laughing themselves sick.

Down with Tyranny:

After all Obama's talk about equality of opportunity in the State of the Union last night, at 11 this morning House conservatives rammed through a horrendous $100 billion farm bill taking another $8 billion a year from the food stamps program and preserving subsidies for wealthy farmers. It passed 251-166, most Democrats voting NO and most Republicans voting YES. 

Demand Your $6,000 Per Year Back

We all know the rich are robbing us blind and have been for decades, but now we finally have a number: The average American family pays $6,000 in subsidies to Big Business. Big Business like Exxon Mobil, which keeps posting record-breaking profits in the range of $40 billion annually - before the subsidies they steal from us.

Paul Burchheit at Nation of Change:

That's over and above our payments to the big companies for energy and food and housing and health care and all our tech devices. It's $6,000 that no family would have to pay if we truly lived in a competitive but well-regulated free-market economy.

The $6,000 figure is an average, which means that low-income families are paying less. But it also means that families (households) making over $72,000 are paying more than $6,000 to the corporations.

1. $870 for Direct Subsidies and Grants to Companies

2. $696 for Business Incentives at the State, County, and City Levels

3. $722 for Interest Rate Subsidies for Banks

4. $350 for Retirement Fund Bank Fees

5. $1,268 for Overpriced Medications

6. $870 for Corporate Tax Subsidies

7. $1,231 for Revenue Losses from Corporate Tax Havens

Much More Than an Insult

Overall, American families are paying an annual $6,000 subsidy to corporations that have doubled their profits and cut their taxes in half in ten years while cutting 2.9 million jobs in the U.S. and adding almost as many jobs overseas. This is more than an insult. It's a devastating attack on the livelihoods of tens of millions of American families. And Congress just lets it happen.

Click the link for the nauseating details.

It's Your Money - The Rich Just Stole it

From Firedoglake:

“That’s right, the government is cutting services and laying off hundreds upon hundreds of thousands in the name of cutting deficits, while handing more than $1 trillion a year to the wealthiest. The rest of us pay taxes and suffer cuts in jobs and services to make up this lost money” The government, for some strange reason (i.e. capitalism) hands over $1 trillion to the wealthiest in America.

Who Are the Farm Subsidy Thieves in Your Neighborhood?

Here's a hint: they're not the ones on food stamps.

DDM at Wonkette:

So our little mommyblog has been harping on the Republicans in Congress because of their strong desire to ensure that poor people don’t eat, because poor people are just wasting taxpayer monies by being frauds. Luckily, the USDA (which administers food stamps) just came out with a big honking report on overpayments, and this is surely gonna be red meat for the Republicans: $20 million in overpayments by the USDA! Hoo boy, libruls are gonna have a tough time with this one… hold on… what’s that, Washington Post:

In a report released this week, the USDA inspector general said the agency spent nearly $15 million on undue payouts through the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation while issuing no major overpayments for nutrition assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — formerly known as food stamps.

Yeah, we bolded that last part because… well, because it’s important, that’s why. Boy, we has a confuze! We were sure that all people on food stamps were just welfare queens who were committing a giant fraud on the American people because we all have that one conservative friend who heard a story from an email from his reliable uncle that there was a guy at a store somewhere who bought a lobster with food stamps, so it’s all a sham because poor people just steal. But it seems that there aren’t poor people who are living the high life on the federal dole… rather, rich agribusinesses are bilking the crop insurance system… with an average excess of $209,000. We here at Wonket are not Mathletes, but we can do basic calculations, provided there is enough alcohol. So if you carry the four, and x equals the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, it would seem that the excesses just from crop insurance equals the amount it would take to provide food stamps for nearly 31,000 families of four for a year. But then some wingnut would just complain about the growing power of the poor-people-eating-food-industrial complex.

Find out who's getting farm subsidies in your state, your congressional district, your back yard here.

No, Welfare Does Not Pay More Than Work

As low as minimum wage is, it's still more than welfare. The only welfare that pays more than work - way more than work - is corporate welfare in the form of trillions of dollars in subsidies to Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Gas, Big Ag, Big Pharma and Wall Street every year.

Josh Barro at Business Insider:

The Cato Institute is out with an update to their 1995 study which purports to show that, in most states, welfare pays better than work.

They add up benefits available through eight programs to a low-income woman with two children, and find total benefit values well in excess of full-time minimum wage work, or even, in some states, middle-skill work.

The study is called "The Welfare-Versus-Work Tradeoff," and it's meant to show why people don't get off welfare. And it's B.S., for three reasons.

1. Very few people actually qualify for all eight of the programs Cato looks at. Particularly, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (cash welfare) and housing assistance can provide some very expensive benefits. But fewer than two million households get TANF and only about four million get housing assistance. It is much more typical for a welfare beneficiary to be getting SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid (health insurance), but no assistance with housing or cash. So, the typical welfare benefit is much lower than Cato makes out, making staying on welfare less appealing.

2. Welfare benefits for single adults are much less generous than those for women with children.

3. Not all benefits are lost when a welfare recipient starts working. SNAP benefits phase out gradually with rising income. People who go back to work don't necessarily lose health benefits, either. Some get new health benefits through work. The children of low-income uninsured workers qualify for the Children's Health Insurance Program in most states. In some states, low-income working adults even qualify for Medicaid. So, going back to work doesn't mean nearly the loss of benefits that Cato implies.

Not to mention that at least 25 percent of people eligible for food stamps, TANF, subsidized house and other "welfare" benefits don't even apply for the benefits they deserve.

And speaking of "deserving," how much do the taxpayers waste on corporate welfare? Billions of dollars per year just for the fossil fuel industry: even if you distributed it evenly among all the stockholders, it's got to be more than a single mother of two gets from our shredded safety net.

When Fossil Fuels Have to Compete on Level Playing Field

They lose.

From Firedoglake:

“Fossil fuel power plants to be shut down in Germany because they’re no longer competitive.”

The Easy Revenue Missing from Obama's Budget

When even Exxon-Mobil handmaiden the IMF says fossil fuel subsidies have to go, you know it's almost too late for ending them to make a difference.


DS Wright at Firedoglake:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a new report out claiming that fossil fuel is “mispriced” and that eliminating subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and adding carbon taxes could cut greenhouse gases by 13 percent.

“Energy subsidies are pervasive and impose substantial fiscal and economic costs in most regions.

On a pre- tax basis, subsidies for petroleum products, electricity, natural gas, and coal reached $480 billion in 2011(0.7 percent of global GDP or 2 percent of total government revenues). The cost of subsidies is especially acute in oil exporters, which account for about two thirds of the total. On a post-tax basis which also factors in the negative externalities from energy consumption — subsidies are much higher at $1.9 trillion (2½ percent of global GDP or 8 percent of total government revenues). The advanced economies account for about 40 percent of the global post-tax total, while oil exporters account for about one third. Removing these subsidies could lead to a 13 percent decline in CO2 emissions and generate positive spillover effects by reducing global energy demand.”

There's not a fossil-fuel corporation on the planet that's not raking in billions a year, if not billions a week. They don't need us to hand them another $480 billion we can't spare.

The Millionaire RMoney Thinks Is a Typical Farmer

This is proof RMoney has no fucking clue that people who aren't millionaires even exist. Or rather that he thinks people who aren't millionaires aren't really "people."

 

This guy is RMoney's idea of someone who needs government help.

 

Stephen Lacey at Think Progress:

If Mitt Romney wants to change perceptions that he’s out of touch with the average American, he might want to try a little harder.

In an attempt to show his concern for farmers hit by the devastating drought that has swept 78 percent of the country, Romney had a photo-op with Iowa “farmer” Lemar Koethe. However, Koethe isn’t exactly the rugged down-home farmer struggling to keep his operation going that you might expect.

Or should I say operations — 54 of them. Yes, according to the Des Moines Register, Koethe owns 54 soy and corn farms. And that’s just one of his jobs.

In previous reports on his activity over the years from the Des Moines Register, Koethe is also a described as a millionaire, a real estate mogul, and a former concert promoter who booked acts like Slipknot at his 24,000 square foot event center.

SNIP
Finally, according to figures from the EWG Farm Subsidies database, Koethe has received $130,575 in conservation payments from the federal government. Conservation payments, which add up to about $5 billion in federal spending each year, are typically used by the government to encourage farmers not to grow crops — sometimes to stabilize prices and sometimes to preserve land.

RMoney wants to apply means testing to Medicare and Social Security so that the rich don't get benefits needed by the less fortunate. The real purpose of means-testing universal benefits like Social Security and Medicare, of course, is to tar them with the "undeserving poor getting welfare" image so it's easy to eliminate them.

Tell ya what, Mitt: let's try means-testing corporate welfare and subsidies-for-the-rich first. If your buddy Koethe is too well-off for Social Security and Medicare, surely he's too well off for farm payments.

Making Big Profits, Not Creating Jobs

In case you need proof that giving rich people and corporations tax breaks so they'll create jobs is like giving addicts heroin so they'll stop using oxy, Think Progress has it:

The Big Five oil companies – BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell – are slated to announce their 2012 second-quarter profits later this week.

We can expect these companies, all of which rank in the top 10 of the “Fortune 500 Global Ranking,” to reveal billions of dollars more in profits, after earning $375 million in profits per day in 2011 ($261,000 per minute), and $368 million per day in the first three-months of 2012 — bringing their combined profits to $1 trillion from 2001 through 2011.

Below is a quick look at just how much these Big Oil companies are making, and where they are spending their billions in profits.

Big Oil’s Big Profits, In 24 Hours

• The five biggest oil companies earned a combined profit of $375 million per day, or a record $137 billion profit for the year, in 2011, despite reducing their oil production.

• In 60 seconds, these five companies earned $261,000 — more than 96 percent of American households make in one year.

• These five oil companies received $6.6 million in federal tax breaks every day.

• In 2011, the three largest domestic public oil companies spent $100 million of their profits each day, or over 50 percent, buying back their own stock to enrich their board, senior managers, and largest share holders.

• The entire oil and gas industry spent on average $400,000 each day lobbying senators and representatives to weaken public health safeguards and keep big oil tax breaks, totaling nearly $150 million.

• Each CEO of the Big Five companies received an average of $60,110 in compensation per day last year. On average, their pay jumped 55 percent in 2011. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson’s compensation came close to $100,000 per day last year.

And here is how they spend it rather than creating jobs:

Millions in Political Contributions and Lobbying

• Despite ranking as some of the most successful companies in the world, big oil and gas companies continue to receive $4 billion in tax breaks each year.

• The oil and gas industry has already given over $30.5 million in federal campaign contributions this year, with a whopping 88 percent going to Republicans.

• Big Oil has spent an additional $37 million on lobbying Congress this year, with the top spenders being Exxon, Shell, Chevron, Koch Industries and BP.

• Their efforts are paying off. This is the most anti-environment Congress in history, with the House of Representatives averaging one anti-environment vote per day, or a total 247 votes through mid-June. The biggest beneficiary of these votes has been Big Oil. The House voted to enrich the oil and gas industry 109 times, a total 44 percent of its anti-environment votes.

• The House is on track to collect a record amount of oil industry contributions this cycle, having already reached 2008 and 2010 levels. And these are direct donations only — it does not include Super PAC spending or other campaign assistance.

 Read on for how the motherfuckers spent our tax dollars to ensure we do nothing to stop global warming: 

It's not just Big Oil, of course - Big Oil's profits and subsidies are just the most egregious. Any industry, corporation or individual who claims they need tax breaks and subsidies to create jobs is not just lying, not just hiding obscene profits, and not just using our tax dollars to sabotage civil society - they are probably either offshoring jobs or just killing them right here at home..

The Obscenely Rich Corporations You Subsidize Are Killing You

The only valid analogy here, really, is vampires. How else to explain the richest people and corporations in America sucking every last dime out of the people who do the real work?

 

Rebecca Leber and Adam Peck at Think Progress:

Every hour so far in 2012, the five largest oil corporations have recorded a $14,400,000 profit. And every hour, they received more than $270,000 in federal tax breaks. That adds up to $2.4 billion in subsidies every year for the five largest oil corporations — Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips — all ranked as the top 9 companies in the world.

Even though BP posted an unexpected second-quarter loss, these five companies are on track to meet last year’s record profits. Put these numbers into context, and they are not so “disappointing“: Big Oil profits more in one minute than what 96 percent of American households earn in one year. Even so, Mitt Romney and House Republicans want to double what the five companies receive in federal tax breaks to $12.8 million per day, even though the three publicly owned U.S. companies paid an average tax rate of under 17 percent.

The graphic below illustrates where Big Oil directs these profits and its pollution over the course of a day:

And the drought that's killing thousands of farmers and sending food prices skyrocketing? Yeah, that's Big Oil's fault, too. And yes, that sound you hear is them laughing their asses off at you.

How to Make an Unspeakably Bad Farm Bill Infinitely Worse

Worse than slashing $16 billion from food stamps? Worse than taking that money from hungry children to lavish more billions in egregious subsidies to Big Ag monsters like Archer Daniels Midland? Worse than promoting destructive, family-farm-killing, obesity-promoting, animal-torturing industrial agriculture?

Oh, yeah.

A so-called "Monsanto rider," quietly slipped into the multi-billion dollar FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill, would require – not just allow, but require - the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be halted until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed. All the farmer or the biotech producer has to do is ask, and the questionable crops could be released into the environment where they could potentially contaminate conventional or organic crops and, ultimately, the nation's food supply.

 
So what, you say? Here's what:

Aren’t critics of genetically engineered food anti-science? Isn’t the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational GM-supporting scientists on the other?

A report released June 17, GMO Myths and Truths, challenges these claims. The report presents a large body of peer-reviewed scientific and other authoritative evidence of the hazards to health and the environment posed by genetically engineered crops and organisms.

Unusually, the initiative for the report came not from campaigners but from two genetic engineers, who believe there are good scientific reasons to be wary of GM foods and crops.

Monsanto motherfuckers are making sure that no one can escape their deadly Frankenfood:

Diana Reeves was furious when her state legislators caved into threats by Monsanto to sue the state of Connecticut if it passed a GMO labeling law. Lawmakers effectively told Connecticut's voters, who had clearly expressed overwhelming support for GMO labeling, "oh well."

Unlike her gutless state legislators who rolled over, Reeves is determined to keep the fight for transparency in GMO ingredients alive - and she's taking her fight national. She's started a group called GMO Free USA which plans to pressure food manufacturers into revealing which of their products contain GMOs. The ultimate goal is to organize national boycotts of those companies that refuse to switch to non-GMO ingredients.

And if you feel like giving your members of Congress an earful, tell 'em to just chuck the whole farm bill - it's past saving.