July 27. 2009 by Dick.

Milking cows is a faster way to lose your shirt than building boats. I should know. I’ve done both. At least boat builders aren’t mandated to sell their boats for less than it costs to build them.

Etienne Desmarais has a dairy farm down the road a piece. It costs him about a buck and a half to make a gallon of milk he can now sell for a buck even. We used to dip our milk out of the bulk tank from Dory Simon’s dairy farm on the other side of us; 30 years ago we paid him a buck a gallon for the freshest, sweetest milk around. Dory sold his herd to Etienne some years ago because the production costs were bankrupting him. Etienne still rents his land.

The economics of farming haven’t gotten any better since we were dipping the bulk tank.

New England dairy farms produce 20% of the country’s milk and employ about 145,000 people. Vermont has 1,045 dairy farms today. A few are like Etienne’s, milking more than 300 or 400 head. Many milk less than 100. Vermont lost about six dairy farms last month alone. Guess why.

Uncle Sam essentially sets the milk price that farms receive through the 2008 Farm Bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) and its MILC (Milk Income Loss Contract) Program. That USDA program “provides direct counter-cyclical style payments to milk producers on a monthly basis when the Boston Federal Milk Marketing Order Class I price for fluid milk falls below the benchmark of $16.94 per hundredweight (cwt).” Milk prices have been a political cow pie since the first Farm Bill set a benchmark decades ago.

• Somehow I’m thinking $11/hundredweight (about a dollar a gallon) is below the benchmark.
• I’m also thinking three bucks or more is a lot to pay in the store for a bottle that cost one dollar at the farm.

Roger Allbee, the real Vermont Agriculture Secretary, just returned from Washington, D.C., where he asked for emergency money via increased payments through the MILC program.

This (latest) decision is expected to take months.

I have to wonder why we should pass the two trillion dollar health plan tomorrow when it takes months (or years) to fix milk prices.

“We’re from the government. We’re here to help.”

Hmmm.

Here’s an interesting progression for the reader’s further consideration:

• Federal subsidies and price controls that began in the 1930s now determine which farmers fail or succeed.
• Federal subsidies and engineering controls that began with the automaker takeover of 2009 will assure which car builders fail or succeed.
• Federal price controls and mandates starting with the upcoming ObamaCare will guarantee which doctors and hospitals fail or succeed.

Since the same Federal Government that mandates milk prices will now set car prices at Government Motors, I reckon your next new Chevrolet or GMC pickup truck will cost the same as I paid for one in 1988. About $10,000, right?

Cool.

I don’t know what to do about the price of milk, though.

Posted in ObamaCare, Society, Politics & News, Random Access | 3 Comments »

July 25. 2009 by Dick.

The AP reports that, “Facing the toughest re-election fight of his nearly 30 years in the Senate, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) boasts about snubbing lobbyists.” That hasn’t stopped him from cashing their campaign checks and schmoozing them at fundraisers and party gatherings.

I gotta tell you, Senator, if you took my money in the bedroom and lied about me on the street, it would be the last time you got any from me.

Take a lesson, politician. It is time to put your mouth where your money is.

Posted in Throw Da Bums Out, Quickies, Politics & News | 4 Comments »

July 23. 2009 by Dick.

FaceTwitSpace has a Universal Healthcare Poll running this week. As of this writing, over 107,148 other people have voted on the question, “Are you in favor of a Government run healthcare system.”

My vote was ‘Hell, No!’

This Health Care argument has nothing to do with health. After all, all the people who will vote on it will not be covered by it.

It’s about the money. And power.

If you can drive the private insurers and private providers out of the market, whatever is left controls who lives and who dies. If you have private insurance, you can change insurers if you don’t like your coverage. If the government says “You must have insurance and you must get it from us,” they put you in jail if you change insurers.

That’s Change We Can Believe In.

If you can drive the private insurers and private providers out of the market, TWO TRILLION more dollars end up in Washington. Each and every year. Except next year when it will be more. And the year after when it will be more still more.

Trillion.

That’s Change We Can Believe In.

President Obama told the nation Wednesday night that we must “change the health care system to reduce the costs and restore the economy.” That is exactly correct. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama did not say another word about reducing the cost of service or restoring the economy; he spent his news conference time on changing the health care system to one run by Uncle Sam’s bureaucrats instead of one run by insurance bureaucrats. That doesn’t fix the problem. It just changes its location. Two trillion more dollars change hands from the private sector to go to Washington. That is exactly wrong.

That’s Change We CAN’T Believe In.

Pundits have said that new Administration’s need to stack accomplishments during the first 100 days is the reason for the rush to ObamaCare. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is critical that the Administration fast track Universal Health Care through immediately, just as they did the “Stimulus Pack” and the theft of the auto industry and their concessionist international diplomacy and the bank bailout that somehow forgot to make any mortgage money available and the 100 days/100 press conferences.

Why is it critical? Because even Congress would rebel if they actually read the bills.

That’s No Change At All.

Posted in ObamaCare, Society, Politics & News, Big Thoughts, Random Access | 4 Comments »