[Chesten_Hesten]

This kinda shit needs to be front page news. This is exactly the kinda shit that is driving the Country under....



Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare


The Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history. ADM and its chairman Dwayne Andreas have lavishly fertilized both political parties with millions of dollars in handouts and in return have reaped billion-dollar windfalls from taxpayers and consumers. Thanks to federal protection of the domestic sugar industry, ethanol subsidies, subsidized grain exports, and various other programs, ADM has cost the American economy billions of dollars since 1980 and has indirectly cost Americans tens of billions of dollars in higher prices and higher taxes over that same period. At least 43 percent of ADM's annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. Moreover, every $1 of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30

One of the most politically charged debates in Washington revolves around business subsidies known as "corporate welfare." A number of policy organizations have published studies examining the corporate welfare phenomenon: what qualifies as corporate welfare, how much it costs taxpayers, and how much it damages the economy. This study examines the dynamics of corporate welfare somewhat differently by investigating ADM as a classic case study of how those subsidies are obtained, how the welfare state encourages such "rent seeking," and how such practices fundamentally corrupt the political life of a nation. Congress's expressed desire to foster a free marketplace cannot be taken seriously until ADM's corporate hand is removed from the federal till.

[smasheroffaces]

"corporate welfare should change its name to stealing from the American people

[redjako]

Well...

I want to see an online website dedicated solely to lobbying for the "private" citizen, which can donate 1-3$ for causes they wish to be lobbyed.

It would be a start, but, how do you compete with multimillion dollar lobbyists pursuits?

Money runs the govt.

[Chesten_Hesten]

From Ethanol to sugar, these cocksuckers are giving everyone the rubber dick!

"Food for Peace" or "Food for Profit"?

ADM has long been a major beneficiary of the Food for Peace program through which surplus U.S. agricultural products are dumped on foreign nations. In 1978 ADM pleaded "no contest" to charges of price fixing and paid $200,000 in criminal penalties in connection with the sale of grain to the Food for Peace program.(126) Even though Andreas continues to champion foreign food aid programs, the harm of those programs has long been obvious.(127) In the 1950s and 1960s massive U.S. wheat dumping in India disrupted India's agricultural market and helped bankrupt thousands of Indian farmers.(128) In 1984 George Dunlop, chief of staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee, speculated that American food aid might have been responsible for the starvation of millions of Indians.(129) U.S. officials have conceded that massive food aid to Indonesia, Pakistan, and India in the 1960s "restricted agricultural growth . . . by allowing the governments to (1) postpone essential agricultural reforms, (2) fail to give agricultural investment sufficient priority, and (3) maintain a pricing system which gave farmers an inadequate incentive to increase production."(130)

Other nations have been similarly hammered by subsidized U.S. exports.

A report by the AID inspector general found that food aid "supported Government of Egypt policies . . . which have had a direct negative impact on domestic wheat production in Egypt."(131)
In Haiti, food received free from the United States is widely sold illegally in markets next to the crops of local farmers, thus driving down the prices received by those formers. A development consultant told the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations that "farmers in Haiti are known to not even bring their crops to market the week that [P.L. 480 food] is distributed since they are unable to get a fair price while whole bags of U.S. food are being sold."(132)
In Somalia a report made by an AID inspector general concluded, "Nearly all Title I [P.L. 480] food deliveries to Somalia in 1985 and 1986 arrived at the worst possible time, the harvest months, and none arrived at the best time, the critical hungry period. The consensus of the donor community was that the timing of the deliveries lowered farmers' prices thereby discouraging domestic production."(133)
In Senegal the Food for Peace program in 1985 and 1986 resulted in the government's closing down the local rice markets to force the Senegalese to buy American rice that their government had been given. The Senegalese are among the few peoples in the world who prefer broken rice to whole-grain rice, as they feel it better suits their sauces and national dishes. P.L. 480 does not offer broken rice. Because P.L. 480 proceeds went straight into the government coffers, Senegalese politicians had an incentive to prohibit the local farmers from selling their own rice in order to dump American rice on the market.(134)
The Kansas City Times reported that in 1982 the Peruvian agriculture minister begged USDA not to send his country any more rice, fearing that it would glut the local market and drive down prices for struggling farmers. But the U.S. rice lobby turned up the heat onUSDA, and the Peruvian government was told that it could either have the rice or no food at all.(135)
No matter how sanctimoniously Andreas attempts to wrap his subsidies in humanitarian garb, the evidence that those programs actually help the intended recipients is scarce indeed. The clearest beneficiary, once again, is ADM.

America's Costs vs. ADM's Profits

Prudential Securities analyst John McMillin estimated that ADM's $746 million in profits in fiscal year 1995 (ending June 30) was derived as follows:

corn sweeteners, 39 percent (or $290,940,000),
total oilseed, 25 percent,
flour milling, 12 percent,
biochemicals, 5 percent,
ethanol, 4 percent (or $29,840,000), and
other, 15 percent.(136)
At least 43 percent of ADM's annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the U.S. government--"at least," because the substantial gain derived by ADM from various domestic crop support programs and export subsidies is virtually impossible to quantify.