When will we have a session of Congress where the senators and representatives show up and say, "You know what? There are already enough laws, programs and entitlements on the books. We're going to do nothing -- absolutely nothing"?
We have a wonderful milk company in East Tennessee. The milk is rich, sweet and smooth; and the icecream is even more sinful. I've travelled the world and the one thing that brings me back to East Tennessee is Mayfield milk [link]. Don't even try to convince me that your second-rate, regional milk producer is superior. Anything other than Mayfield milk is snot. I know. So, I was disappointed this week to hear that our milk prices are going up.
My family goes through about three or four gallons a week. It goes with Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, oatmeal, pancakes, pizza, chocolate cake ... well, you get the point. My older son drinks milk with nearly every meal. We've come to believe that his milk mustache is stained on his upper lip permanently. Therefore, a milk price increase is going to hit my wallet relatively hard.
What could possibly cause an increase? That's right. The meddling government.
You see, the government -- our benevolent nanny -- is subsidizing ethanol production. The subsidy has artificially inflated the price of corn. What that means is that the only people benefiting from the ethanol production are corn growers and ethanol producers. The rest of us lose.
The government gets involved. Corn prices go up artificially. Dairy farmers pay more for feed corn. And the increased costs are passed to consumers in the form of price increases. Therefore, my beloved milk is more expensive.
Oh, and if that isn't bad enough, did you know that there are 119 ethanol refineries in the U.S. with 77 under construction. Yet, my 1991 Civic uses gasoline! So how many oil refineries are there? There certainly aren't enough because gasoline is hovering around $3 a gallon with no hope of it coming down soon. And there have been no new ones built since 1976!
So the government -- our elected officials, mind you -- get involved in the form of subsidies and my milk goes up. And then they get involved in the form of EPA regulations and permits and my gas goes up. For crying out loud! Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!!!!
Next time, I'm voting for a lazy procrastinator. Run on that ticket and you have my vote.