krebscycle

Republicans might have won a state house seat in Kentucky Tuesday illustrating the moral emptiness of Republicans/Conservatives/Libertarians. One of the campaign issues was that the GOP candidate’s family got millions in farm subsidies. But to Republicans/Conservatives, handouts they get are not handouts.

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer told the Herald-Leader Tuesday night that Democrats had significantly miscalculated, either not appreciating or not anticipating that the agriculture community would draw a distinction between farm subsidies for grain farmers and federal handouts. Lexington Herald

Tax money from working people in New York and California (two states that pay a lot more Federal taxes than is spent in them) is given to rich farmers in Kentucky, but that’s not a handout, because the recipients don’t think it is a handout. Money given to feed poor babies is a handout because, well, I don’t know. This is a recurring story. The former actor Craig Nelson told Glenn Beck

I’ve been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No.

Did he think he earned those food stamps, that welfare? Or consider the Grand Prairie Demonstration project – a vast rip-off of the Federal Tax payer to benefit Arkansas farmers whose selfish and shortsighted water use emptied the aquifer under their land. So far the Feds have spent $105million dollars on the Grand Prairie project.

Most of the farmers want the government to send them replacement water from the White River. The Army Corps of Engineers and the state support a plan to spend more than $200 million in federal money on the project, or about $300,000 a farmer.

And what’s the justification for this “federal handout”?

Another farmer, Lynn Sickel, 51, said: ”I’m a conservative person. But if this is what it’s going to take for highly productive farmland to continue to provide food nationally and internationally, well, that’s the taxpayer’s burden.” -NYTimes

See, it’s not a handout if it goes to the right people Then there is Tim Huelskamp, Republican Congressman from Kansas first district. Tim bravely opposed aid to the Northeast following Hurricane Sandy:

On a conservative talk show earlier this month, Huelskamp explained his opposition, saying he was “not convinced” that Sandy relief was necessary. He said the relief legislation “reminds me of the stimulus package.”

The government shutdown didn’t bother him either.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., emphasized that point. “I’m from a district that pretty much ignores Washington,” he said. “If you say government is going to shut down, they say, ‘OK, which part can we shut down?’” – Associated Press

That’s because his district does not get “handouts”/

First CD: $9.06 billion in farm subsidies 1995-2012.

1. $6.59 billion in commodity subsidies.
2. $1.63 billion in conservation subsidies.
3. $850 million in disaster subsidies.
4. Kansas ranking: 6 of 50 States
5. 32 percent of farms in Kansas did not collect subsidy payments – according to USDA.
6. Ten percent collected 67 percent of all subsidies. Amounting to $6.11 billion over 18 years.
7. Top 10%: $33,104 average per year between 1995 and 2012.
8. Bottom 80%: $962 average per year between 1995 and 2012

EWS database

Not to mention Fort Riley which was built to protect the First Congressional District from the Commanche Indians, who resented having their land stolen. Fort Riley remains an important place to pour tax dollars from people who have real jobs in San Francisco even though it has zero military utility.

I am committed to our Fort Riley Soldiers and want their units to remain stationed at Fort Riley. – Tim