Bush Veto Is Agreeable
President Bush promises to veto the five-year, $300 billion farm bill before Congress this week. The House and Senate have given him plenty of reasons to do so. The bill is so wrongheaded it’s the equivalent of beating swords into plowshares at the outbreak of a war that closely follows a bumper crop.
The bill enjoys broad support in both the House and Senate, where even free-market conservatives hypocritically vote to spare growers of food and fiber from the uncertainties of supply and demand. The bill would pay generous subsidies to farmers no matter how much or little they harvested.
U.S. crop subsidies hurt developing countries two ways at once. They discourage domestic food production and contribute to the high cost of imports. Result: more poverty, hunger and all the attendant social ills, not to mention riots and unrest. It reflects poorly on a Congress that could inflict such harm so blithely, with so little lost sleep.
Not only would the bill do nothing to ease global hunger, it does much to aggravate the crisis. The bill reported out by the conference committee rejects a needed increase in the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program; instead, it would cut money from the program. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. (no relation to former Sen. George McGovern), predicted that some poor countries would have to cease offering food to children as an incentive to go to school.
The final version of the bill retains the prohibition against buying food abroad, where it would be nearer to famine-stricken populations. This increases the cost and carbon footprint of food transportation and delays receipt of emergency supplies.
I would agree on the veto from Bush. This bill has enough earmarks to choke a horse. I do see where this bill will do that much to eliminate the hunger of the US and the world. I know moist who know me are taking aback…that I would say anything good about the Prez….but on this bill, for now, I will agree on his action.
