We just had another couple of installments in the long inglorious anti-free market saga that is the United States Farm Bill.
Birds of a feather - failing together
First there was:
(Democrat) Senate Passes Farm Bill
A huge cacophony of Food Stamp welfare spending:
Farm Bill Follies: 80 of $955B for Funding of Food Stamps
And farm market protectionism:
US Farm Bill Gives Generous Subsidies to Agribusiness
The Republican House then took it up and it got worse.
Farm Bill Passes House (Without Food Stamp Funding)
(T)his bill proposed by Republicans remember is fiscally to the left of the Senate Democrats and President Obamas proposals.
The U.S. farm sector has been highly government-centric longer than just about any other. The Tech sector meanwhile was arguably the most free from Leviathan constriction until the Barack Obama Administration came to town.
The 2010 Tea Party election which delivered the Republican-majority House caused the President to amp up his unConstitutional unilateral power grab game.
Obama Rule by Fiat to Begin with Net Neutrality
Ignoring the resounding message sent by voters only a couple weeks ago the Obama administration has decided to move ahead with its socialist transformation of America through federal fiat starting with Net Neutrality….
And he since hasnt looked back.
Obama Forcing Private Companies to Have Board Votes on (Net Neutrality)
Cell Phone Price Controls: The FCCs Next Power Grab
Obama Contemplates Internet Tax
Executive Order: Obamas Cyber Security Power Grab
Obama Administrations Next Illegal Power Grab-That Will Again Cost You Money
The Obama Administrations unilateral regulatory assaults on the economy have been myriad and all-sector-encompassing.
Brazil has long been practicing the Huge Government-ism President Obama has been ramping up here. When President Obama took office Brazils long-serving president was Trotskyite Socialist Democrat Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Obama knows a kindred spirit when he sees one.
Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling (- Not Here in Brazil)
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazils state-owned oil company Petrobras to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazils Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro.
Howd that work out for President Obama? For him about normal.
Brazil Stiffs Obama on Oil Deal
Brazil whose offshore deposits of oil were sought by the Obama administration has signed contracts with China for the product.
Call it another Obama hit of the international Reset button.
The billions fleeced from President Obama notwithstanding Brazils economy stinks. And their people have had it.
Whats Behind Brazils Demonstrations? Poor Economic Policy
Brazil demonstrations were sparked by specific grievances against the government. But the underlying frustrations stems from failed economic policies that have slowed productivity growth and hurt entrepreneurialism.
And what failed economic policies" are they protesting? The same Huge Government ones were being force fed here. (Sounds like a Brazilian Tea Party.)
How about their Farm Policy? Sounds a lot like ours:
Take Brazils gi-normous sugar industry. Our sugar tariff regime is in response to ridiculously huge Brazilian subsidies $2.5 billion worth last year alone….
And the Big Government parade continues unabated. Brazil just announced for 2013 $480 million in new sugarcane ethanol tax breaks and $1.9 billion in Joe Pesci ethanol loans.
How about their Tech Policy? Like ours the Internet arose and grew too fast for their Leviathan to ensnare it. Like President Obama Brazil is looking to play catch-up.
Internet Constitution Becomes Priority for Brazilian Government
(O)ne of the major sticking points of the proposal and the apparent reason why voting of the bill has taken so long is the (Net) Neutrality issue. The (bill) would crack down on current practices of Brazilian internet providers….
President Obamas Brazilian buddy President da Silva is now gone replaced by the even more Leftist Dilma Rousseff (who was in power when Brazil bamboozled Obama on the oil). President Rousseff:
(B)ecame a socialist during her youth and following the 1964 coup detat joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups….In 2000 after an internal dispute in (da Silvas party) she left…and joined the Workers Party.
The dispute? Rousseff found the party too moderate for her tastes.
And she is now as President ramming through even more Huge Government like ever-more-gi-normous farm subsidies and a Net Neutrality takeover of the Internet.
Sounds a lot like us. With similar failed economic results. And a similar citizen revolt rising up to protest the Fail.
Will the U.S. and/or Brazil finally learn that central planning doesnt and hasnt ever worked?
And will either do so in time to end the respective death spirals?