Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2016 Living Off the Fat of Washington If Trump is going to ‘drain the swamp,’ he might start with wasteful ag subsidies. By James Bovard President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to “drain the swamp” in Washington could begin with the Agriculture Department. Federal aid to farmers is forecast by the Congressional […]
Tag Archives | Boondoggle
Barron’s: Obama’s Farm Fiasco
Barron’s, August 20, 2016 Farmers Should Farm for a Living by James Bovard And politicians should stop dishing out the pork. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that spending for federal farm-commodity programs will increase eightfold from 2015 to 2017. Since the 1930s, Congress has rarely missed a chance to shower rural America with more […]
Wall Street Journal: Our Shameful Peanut Subsidy Hammers Haiti
Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2016 A Subsidy as Shameful as They Come By James Bovard The U.S. has paid for a million pounds of peanuts it can’t use. Solution: Dump them on Haiti—causing a disaster for its farmers. The Obama administration’s plan to dump a million pounds of surplus peanuts into Haiti at no […]
Reason: Our $4 Trillion Security Theater Farce
from the June issue of Reason magazine – The High Price of Security Theater The $4 trillion war on terror: Where did the money go? James Bovard Since 2001, the U.S. government has spent mind-boggling sums to purportedly keep the homeland safe. There was the $30 billion raise for the FBI that didn’t see 9/11 […]
FFF: The Great Sugar Robbery Continues
The Great Sugar Robbery Continues by James Bovard Seventeen years ago, The Future of Freedom Foundation published my piece “The Great Sugar Shaft.” That article hammered federal sugar policy as one of the most brazen interventionist failures in American history. Unfortunately, the political looting of sugar consumers and food producers continues unabated. Federal price supports […]
FFF: Supreme Demolition for the Raisin Racket
From the Future of Freedom Foundation – Supreme Demolition for the Raisin Racket by James Bovard The December 2013 Future of Freedom contained my article “A Supreme Rebuff for USDA’s Ruinous Raisin Regime.” The legal case surrounding that controversy kept percolating in the courts for another 18 months. The Obama administration won a big victory […]
2015 A Great Year for Ruckuses – Thanks for Comments!
I want to thank the good folks who commented here this year. It was a good year for making it hot for Washington rascals. Here’s a roundup of the logos of agencies I tagged this year in USA Today, Barron’s, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, F.F.F., and elsewhere. I wish you “good hunting” in the […]
Jim
Sorry to hear that the Grim Reaper has hit so hard
Tom Blanton
I've been thinking that politicians debating
John Walker
A great tribute to a life lived well and to a kins