John Birch Society, WI
03-23-07
Pork Barrel Now Contains Spinach, Peanuts, and More
By John F. McManus
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
The bill designed to provide emergency funding for the military operations in Iraq
includes $3.7 billion for spinach growers, peanut farmers, milk producers, and
others. In other words, the practice of having the government dole out funding for
totally unrelated private interests isn't dying.
COMMENTARY:
Whether to fund or not fund the Iraq War isn't the issue. No one denies that
support for the military is a proper function of government. But, whenever an
appropriations bill comes before Congress, as a new one will on March 23, the
aggrieved American taxpayer can expect it to be loaded down with special
interest add-ons that have nothing to do with the major purpose of the measure.
Growing spinach and harvesting peanuts has nothing to do with military
appropriations. But the current bill before Congress to fund the Iraq War calls for
$25 million for spinach growers and $74 million for those who grow peanuts. Add
to this a whopping $252 million to support milk producers and numerous other
special favors for agribusiness firms, and the total in this bill alone comes to $3.7
billion for agricultural interests.
This is not the first time special interest spending has been added to major
appropriations measures, and much of the funding in this one, as in the past,
goes to multi-millionaire agribusiness firms that surely don't need it to stay in
business. The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics reported that during
2005-06 agribusinesses spent $84 million lobbying Congress and donated $44
million to political campaigns.
Darryl Howard lost his mother to tainted spinach in 2006. "They killed my mother
and now they want me to pay for it," he told USA Today. Congressman Sam Farr
(D-Calif.), whose district is home to many spinach growers, happens to serve on
the House Appropriations Committee. He faced little opposition when he sought
to add funding for his constituents who suffered losses because of last year's
widespread fear about contaminated spinach.
According to the tracking of such handouts by the Environmental Working Group,
the federal government doled out $165 billion in subsidies to farm operators over
the past decade. Iowa State University's Bruce Babcock calls the practice
"bad public policy," while he acknowledges that it is supported by most members
of Congress whose districts include farmers.
While threatening to veto the bill, President Bush indicated that Congress should
not "use funding for our troops as leverage to get special interest spending for
their districts." He'll find much agreement throughout the nation for that stance.
But his determination to continue and even expand the Iraq War suggests that
he'll approve the measure no matter how much funding it contains for pork,
vegetables, goobers, or whatever.
Improper government involvement in all aspects of life continues to increase. It is
fueled by vote-buying with taxpayers's money that grows even faster than
subsidized spinach and overly protected peanuts.