Monday, January 25, 2016

How can I say this in 140 characters: Yo, Trump supporters, Ethanol Pander Alert! Are you there? Yoo-hoo! CRONY CAPITALISM!!! Are you paying attention? ...

There is no more craven act of hypocrisy and political opportunism than Donald Trump's call for higher ethanol mandates in corn-rich Iowa. Not only did he do this in the midst of making his case to Republican primary voters that he is a conservative, but the anti-establishment Trump's announcement endeared him to the state's corn-fed political establishment, which is now coming to Trump's side.

That, of course, was the idea in the first place.

As the conservative blog RedState put it:
Last week and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad looked on, Donald Trump declared himself awholly owned subsidiary of the Ethanol Lobby. By all descriptions, Trump carefully mouthed the words he had presented to him on a note card declaring ethanol to be the greatest thing since bankruptcy protection and eminent domain abuse. 
Is there something about all this that the alleged conservatives now supporting Trump don't understand?

My wife complains constantly about high food prices. And of course ethanol subsidies are one of the chief reasons food prices are high. This isn't some subsidy that helps consumers, it hurts them. The single, sole, and only reason we have them is because corn states have inordinate representation in the United States Senate. It's pure special interest politics and crony capitalism.

On the flip-side there has been no more principled political action during this campaign than the one Ted Cruz has taken in Iowa: He has unapologetically opposed ethanol subsidies in a state in which such a position does nothing but hurt him politically.

1 comment:

Rob said...

My (admittedly feeble understanding) is that not even Iowa is all that Iowa Farmland and hasn't been for decades. It's not just an over-represented lobby...it's an over-represented lobby that doesn't even represent much of anyone. I think Five Thirty-Eight ran something on it last month.