This is my last column for a while. I need the time to help sell my book, America’s Bankruptcy Approaches; How to Resolve the Issue and Prevent It from Reoccurring, which will be released in September 2021.
Political Professionalism at Work
July 19, 2021. An AIER article by James Bovard reveals that, shortly after the November 2016 election, when Trump planned to nominate Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture, Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM), a large producer of ethanol, sold Sonny a plant it had previously been trying to sell for $4 million. Sonny’s price? $250,000. He sold the plant for a substantial profit.
ADM originally sold the plant to Sonny Purdue simply because they liked him, right?
Yeah sure.
Hundreds of millions of gallons of ethanol were subsequently added to the U.S. gas supply. The biofuels industry also received $100 million of government subsidies. Those benefits had nothing to do with Sonny’s gift. Just coincidences, right?
Coincidences hell! They were legalized corruption.
Ethanol is a wretched product. More energy is required to produce it (tractor fuel, grain transportation, etc.) than it generates as a fuel. Gallon for gallon, ethanol generates only two-thirds as much energy as gasoline. It also damages automobile engines. Legislators subsidize it anyway to attract campaign gifts and votes from Iowa farmers.
A University of Connecticut report concluded that “For every dollar invested in contributions to political action committees, farm groups obtained on average approximately $2,132 in policy transfers” (meaning subsidies). Small campaign gifts. Big returns.
Wanting to remain in office for decades, legislators shower people with government goodies, looking for gifts and votes. Doing what’s right matters little.
Political professionalism causes pervasive government corruption. To reduce it, House and Senate members should be limited to just one term each, with much reduced pay.
Why would this work?
It’s in the book.
