Tag Archives: Subsidies

News

Obama awards billions of taxpayer dollars to British liquor producer

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The article is from the Chicago Tribune. (H/T ECM via The Weekly Standard)

Excerpt:

With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to direct billions in U.S. tax dollars to an unlikely beneficiary — the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum.

Under the agreement, London-based Diageo PLC will receive tax credits and other benefits worth $2.7 billion over 30 years, including the entire $165-million cost of building a state-of-the-art distillery on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory….

“The U.S. taxpayer is basically being asked to line the pockets of the world’s largest liquor producer,” says Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog organization.

With the exception of Ellis and a handful of lawmakers, however, the deal has attracted little opposition in Congress or elsewhere.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he does not have authority to block or investigate the project. Criticism on the Hill has been confined to a small group that includes Republican Congressmen Dan Burton of Indiana and Darrel Issa of California, plus a handful of Democrats with large Puerto Rican constituencies.

Remember, Obama won’t allow drilling at home, but he has lots of money to give Brazilian companies to drill in Brazil. We didn’t really need those jobs, anyway. And besides, George Soros needs to make some money, too.

Commentary

New Heritage Foundation study says cap-and-trade will kill jobs and the economy

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New study from The Heritage Foundation, my favorite think tank! (H/T Hot Air)

This image tells all:

Job losses per year if cap and trade passes.
Job losses per year if cap and trade passes.

Summary of the effects: (adjusted for inflation to 2009 dollars)

  • Cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses are $9.4 trillion between 2012 and 2035;
  • Single-year GDP losses reach $400 billion by 2025 and will ultimately exceed $700 billion;
  • Net job losses approach 1.9 million in 2012 and could approach 2.5 million by 2035. Manufacturing loses 1.4 million jobs in 2035;
  • The annual cost of emissions permits to energy users will be at least $100 billion by 2012 and could exceed $390 billion by 2035;
  • A typical family of four will pay, on average, an additional $829 each year for energy-based utility costs; and
  • Gasoline prices will rise by 58 percent ($1.38 more per gallon) and average household electric rates will increase by 90 percent.

FYI, current GDP is around 14 trillion per year. The current labor force is around 130 million (non-farm).

News

Rep. Mike Pence drafts amendment to defund Planned Parenthood

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Article here from OneNewsNow.

Full text:

Pro-life Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) has drafted an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood.

Pence’s amendment is attached to a Department of Health and Human Services funding bill that, in part, throws federal tax dollars Planned Parenthood’s way. Justin Aquila of the Susan B. Anthony List tells OneNewsNow the abortion provider receives a sizeable part of the appropriation.

“In the past two years, Planned Parenthood has received $350 million [in taxpayer funding],” he notes.

That taxpayer support goes to a non-profit organization that reports a sizeable profit each year, generates annual revenues in excess of one billion dollars (according to its most recent annual report), and performs many of the abortions done in the U.S. Aquila points to the abortion figures for last year.

“[They performed] 290,000 abortions, which is 25,000 more than the previous year — and approximately one in every five abortions occurs at a Planned Parenthood facility,” he adds.

People can encourage their elected representatives to vote for the amendment by going to the Susan B. Anthony website. “To flood the House all week would be great,” says the pro-life activist.

Otherwise, notes the pro-life group, Congress will continue to “pump millions of your tax dollars” into the abortion industry each year. Surveys have indicated the public does not want their taxes used to fund abortions.

I wonder how the Democrats will vote on this one.