Fang reports: "After a conservative-led revolt against the Farm Bill, a five-year congressional funding program for agricultural and hunger programs, a deal will reportedly reach the president's desk on Friday."
David Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries, attends an event at The Economic Club of New York. (photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)
Farm Bill Cuts $8 Billion in Food Stamps, Preserves Handouts to Koch Industries
08 February 14
fter a conservative-led revolt against the Farm Bill, a five-year congressional funding program for agricultural and hunger programs, a deal will reportedly reach the president's desk on Friday. The final iteration of the bill cuts $8 billion from food stamps, a key demand made by Americans for Prosperity, which aired advertisements and organized opposition to the initial Farm Bill because of the supposed waste of providing food assistance to needy families. Americans for Prosperity is controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers and their cohort. Koch groups claimed the Farm Bill serves "special interests and powerful corporations" over the taxpayers.
Yet, the final funding package contains a number of giveaways that benefit Koch Industries' bottom line:
� Biomass Subsidies: The Farm Bill preserves $881 million in mandatory spending for biomass energy, a program that Koch Industries' timber subsidiary Georgia-Pacific has used to to extract government subsidies. Georgia-Pacific applied and qualified for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program for its facilities in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Oregon and Florida. Lobbying reports from Koch Industries show that the company has pressured Congress on the Farm Bill, specifically on the BCAP program. Records also show that Koch Industries executive Deborah Baker asked Department of Agriculture officials to expand BCAP forestry eligibility.
� New Clean Water Act Exemption: The Farm Bill enacts a measure that ensures runoff of pesticides and other chemicals from forestry sites may not be regulated under the Clean Water Act as industrial pollution. The Farm Bill includes an amendment that would define the "EPA's treatment of forestry operations as non-point sources of pollution under the Clean Water Act." A bipartisan group of legislators sponsored the forestry amendment, which Wild Oregon warns will overturn "a recent court ruling that found that pollution originating from active logging roads be treated similarly to other industrial activities." The group says the amendment poses "a serious risk not just to the [Nestucca River], but to countless other rivers and streams in Oregon that have been damaged by poor logging and road building practices." Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific signed on with other companies in lobbying for this amendment to the Farm Bill.
Koch Industries was also joined by other energy and timber corporations in lobbying for the expansion of biomass energy programs. Timber companies and their trade associations, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, came together to demand the Clean Water Act exemption.
Recipients of food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), had few resources to influence Congress. Although several grocery and convenient store industry groups pushed back against cuts on SNAP, defenders of food stamps were largely outgunned during the debate. Anti-poverty activists say the deep cuts in the food stamp program will amount to a $90 monthly reduction for many families.
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These are VERY serious accusations of criminal misconduct. The article also presents itself with some rather hysterical overtones. I would like to see significant amounts of empirical data supporting your statements before drawing any conclusions.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." ~ Carl Sagan
So much for their credibility.
That said, are there mis-diagnoses? abuses? sure. Is it easy to get these meds? absolutely not. Every year they get more tightly controlled. I'm probably on a watch list just because I get these for my kids (no shit)... (and that's from a pharmacy with an rx)...
In previous eras of American history we had dire economic conditions, but we didn't have huge numbers of people being homeless for decades like we have in the modern era. Don't say it is the result of de-institutiona lization. State mental hospitals with large patient populations were a relatively short-lived phenomenon of the first half of the 20th century. Where were all these homeless people (who were supposedly born with "bad brains") before then?
Medication controls but does not prevent symptomatology. We hung on for years before resorting to medication. Without it, my child would be non-functional academically and failing in school.
She goes off medication in the summer. We see the doctor every 3 months to monitor dosage and effectiveness as well as side effects which are none to date.
I want to see the studies, who the study group was and the conditions under which the studies were performed, before I walk away from the obvious personal benefits she gets from the medication.
I find it interesting to see people commenting on Scientology and their efforts against psychiatry. Is the fact that Scientology seems zany and dangerous any worse than philandering pastors in the Catholic Church? How about corrupt legislators taking your money and the money of corporations but only serving corporate interests?
Stick to the facts - they are abundant - Big Pharma kills - they're corrupt and their corruption affects doctors and psychiatrists which in turn harm your children.
Get a reality check - stop drinking the Kool-Aid charade called Health Care - it's neither healthy or caring!
BTW: For my money anyone that believes in Scientology NEEDS a psychiatrist.
The stench of Scientology this way comes.
[With apologies to Macbeth]
In over 30 yrs of prescribing Ritalin I havent had a patient's parents alert me that their child had dropped dead.
Its dysinformation like this article from a journal I've never heard of, Natural News, which keeps parents frightened and treatment withheld resulting in less medication prescribed [there are several others] than the occurance of the disabling condition merits.
Boo hiss. Its flattering that RSN relies in the sophistication of their readers to assign this to the dump heap of medical meddling.