Sugar Bailout

[G8trGr8t]

The stupidity of the sugar subsidy continues...good thing we have so much extra cash laying around...they find money for this bs and yet they want to raise taxes

and the sugar industry is the single industry most responsible for everglades pollution and red tide

and one of the biggest sugar producers are the Fanjul Brothers, cubans ex-pats.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily...160731070.html

In one of the dumbest, most counter-productive, anti-free market moves in recent history (which is saying a lot), the U.S. government is considering a bailout of the sugar industry.

In an effort to prop up sugar prices, which have fallen 18% since October, the USDA is considering buying 400,000 tons of sugar -- or enough to make 142 billion Hersey’s Kisses -- The WSJ reports.

Of course, there’s nothing new about government support for the sugar industry: The government has been lending money to sugar producers since the 1934 Sugar Act.

But reports of this latest bailout are particularly galling considering the backdrop of a debate in Washington over how to address the nation’s long-term deficit and the ongoing “War on Obesity” being waged by policymakers.

meanwhile, most of the candy manufacturing business has left the US because they couldn't afford the price of sugar here

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/ne...scled-l/nL2wg/

The cables read like a political thriller: In the Dominican Republic, a "small, powerful coterie of infuriated sugar barons" was trying to sabotage a top American priority, a free trade agreement.

Growers were likely bribing Dominican lawmakers, sponsoring anti-American attack ads and paying for slanted newspaper coverage, American diplomats alleged in secret dispatches to Washington in 2004 - documents obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by The Palm Beach Post.

The cables outline just one side of a high-stakes and contentious debate, but they contain controversial allegations against Palm Beach County's most influential sugar family: the Fanjuls.

The diplomats identified the Cuban expatriates as especially fierce opponents in the fight over the free trade agreement, a struggle that led to layoffs and a mill closing in the Glades.

On one side, the Fanjuls, owners of 155,000 acres in Palm Beach County and among the largest sugar producers in the world, and other Dominican sugar growers bridled at what they viewed as "heavy-handed" and "dictatorial" tactics by the U.S. ambassador and at American pandering to special interests

The Fanjul brothers are the money behind Casa de Campo, the resort where our Senate Foreign Relations Chairman likes to visit when he wants some young stuff and where Rangel has his beachfront cottage that he forgot to disclose on his tax records. These are the men that will benefit from the new and improved sugar bailout. what a joke, good thing we cancelled those WH tours so the brothers can top off their jets to hit another society function or buy another legislator in the DR.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/...weet.deal.html

Occupying a breathtaking spot on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic, Casa de Campo is one of the Caribbean's most storied resorts. It bills itself as "a hedonist's and sportsman's dream," and that's truth in advertising. The place has 14 swimming pools, a world-class shooting ground, PGA-quality golf courses and $1,000-a-night villas.

A thousand miles to the northwest, in the Florida Everglades, the vista is much different. Chemical runoff from the corporate cultivation of sugar cane imperils vegetation and wildlife. Polluted water spills out of the glades into Florida Bay, forming a slimy, greenish brown stain where fishing once thrived.

Both sites are the by-product of corporate welfare.

In this case the beneficiaries are the Fanjul family of Palm Beach, Fla. The name means nothing to most Americans, but the Fanjuls might be considered the First Family of Corporate Welfare. They own Flo-Sun Inc., one of the nation's largest producers of raw sugar. As such, they benefit from federal policies that compel American consumers to pay artificially high prices for sugar.

Since the Fanjuls control about one-third of Florida's sugar-cane production, that means they collect at least $60 million a year in subsidies, according to an analysis of General Accounting Office calculations. It's the sweetest of deals, and it's made the family, the proprietors of Casa de Campo, one of America's richest.

The subsidy has had one other consequence: it has helped create an environmental catastrophe in the Everglades. Depending on whom you talk to, it will cost anywhere from $3 billion to $8 billion to repair the Everglades by building new dikes, rerouting canals and digging new lakes.

[GatorSaint]

Wait a minute, I thought that handouts only went to the poor!?!

[GatorFanCF]

This is where the Tea Party and Occupy ___________ can find common ground. I'm a conservative, entrepreneur and this stuff is absolute BS. The Fanjul brothers are welcome to compete; but, screw you when it comes to getting special consideration from the US government. The little guy who had a good business as a fishing guide who can no longer conduct tours because of the pollution doesn't get a bailout - and probably not unemployment as he was self-employed. The game now is be big enough to carry clout and throw your weight around (okay, that's been the game for a couple of millenia). Here's my political mantra "TOP" Transparency over Partisanship - no privelege. I'm a member of the TOP party - don't want my taxes going to folks who can work but choose not to do so; and, I don't want my taxes going to successful industries as special consideration in an increasingly global economy - with the caveat of national security.

[gator1986]

Yea sugar industry was the main culprits partaking in the Everglades draining I'm pretty sure. Please correct me if i am i might be...Makes me sick.... Love the Everglades, that's Florida at its most beautiful and natural state, all the yuppies can have the beach ill take my lovely muddy water...

[LittleBlueLW]

Originally Posted by GatorSaint

Wait a minute, I thought that handouts only went to the poor!?!

If that is what you think, you are sorely mistaken.

[wgbgator]

Originally Posted by gator1986

Yea sugar industry was the main culprits partaking in the Everglades draining I'm pretty sure. Please correct me if i am i might be...Makes me sick.... Love the Everglades, that's Florida at its most beautiful and natural state, all the yuppies can have the beach ill take my lovely muddy water...

No, you are right. The "muck" down there is some of the most fertile soil (if you can call it that) in the world. The rush to cultivate it for sugar and vegatables upset the ecosystem of the Everglades. If you want to see some third world-like conditions (and really good HS football), go visit Belle Glade.

[gator1986]

Originally Posted by wgbgator

No, you are right. The "muck" down there is some of the most fertile soil (if you can call it that) in the world. The rush to cultivate it for sugar and vegatables upset the ecosystem of the Everglades. If you want to see some third world-like conditions, go visit Belle Glade.

I drive down that way a lot. I love the Everglades, nothing like air boating. If anyone listens to country music listen to John Anderson - Seminole Wind, it's all about the Everglades, I guess most people that listen to country have heard it anyways. =)

[CHFG8R]

Originally Posted by G8trGr8t

The stupidity of the sugar subsidy continues...good thing we have so much extra cash laying around...they find money for this bs and yet they want to raise taxes

and the sugar industry is the single industry most responsible for everglades pollution and red tide

and one of the biggest sugar producers are the Fanjul Brothers, cubans ex-pats.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily...160731070.html



meanwhile, most of the candy manufacturing business has left the US because they couldn't afford the price of sugar here

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/ne...scled-l/nL2wg/



The Fanjul brothers are the money behind Casa de Campo, the resort where our Senate Foreign Relations Chairman likes to visit when he wants some young stuff and where Rangel has his beachfront cottage that he forgot to disclose on his tax records. These are the men that will benefit from the new and improved sugar bailout. what a joke, good thing we cancelled those WH tours so the brothers can top off their jets to hit another society function or buy another legislator in the DR.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/...weet.deal.html

Fitting as this policy is about as stupid as our Cuba policy.

[tec68]

Originally Posted by wgbgator

No, you are right. The "muck" down there is some of the most fertile soil (if you can call it that) in the world. The rush to cultivate it for sugar and vegatables upset the ecosystem of the Everglades. If you want to see some third world-like conditions (and really good HS football), go visit Belle Glade.

Are you kidding me?

Where exactly are you from? How do you come to share this knowledge with us?

[108]

Thread has surprised me....in a good way!

[HALLGATOR]

"money talks" always has and always will no matter what brand of government you have.

[Gatorrick22]

Originally Posted by G8trGr8t

The stupidity of the sugar subsidy continues...good thing we have so much extra cash laying around...they find money for this bs and yet they want to raise taxes

and the sugar industry is the single industry most responsible for everglades pollution and red tide

and one of the biggest sugar producers are the Fanjul Brothers, cubans ex-pats.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily...160731070.html



meanwhile, most of the candy manufacturing business has left the US because they couldn't afford the price of sugar here

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/ne...scled-l/nL2wg/



The Fanjul brothers are the money behind Casa de Campo, the resort where our Senate Foreign Relations Chairman likes to visit when he wants some young stuff and where Rangel has his beachfront cottage that he forgot to disclose on his tax records. These are the men that will benefit from the new and improved sugar bailout. what a joke, good thing we cancelled those WH tours so the brothers can top off their jets to hit another society function or buy another legislator in the DR.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/...weet.deal.html

How does that money get approved, where does the POTUS get that kind of power to approve this expenditure, or is it the whole congress that allocated this expenditure?

Is this spending approved by someone... in a budget.... or is this kind of spending the reason there is no budget?


Since when (on Earth) can the US.D.A. make these sorts of purchases? Is the U.S.D.A. NOW EMPOWERED TO MAKE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGETARY SPENDING DECISIONS?