March 2000 Vol. 221 No. 3  Editorial

Thomas R. Wright, Jr.,  Editorial Director

Governmental goofs

Recent debates among U.S. presidential candidates have revived the discussion about whether ethanol subsidies should be continued. Not surprisingly, stands taken during a debate in Iowa were almost unanimously in favor of maintaining the largess for farmers and the huge agri-business companies.

What was surprising was who the lone dissenter turned out to be. No, it wasn’t George W. Bush (a.k.a. "The Shrub"), Governor of Texas, where oil is such an important component of the economy. Instead, it was Arizona Senator John McCain who had the guts to tell Archer Daniels Midland and the farm country residents that ethanol subsidies need to be phased out. The Shrub, with a classic straight face, quibbled that "it is good for our air," which is not really true.

With this renewed attention to the ethanol question, now may be an appropriate time to check out a study by the Cato Institute titled "Archer Daniels Midland: A Portrait of a Welfare Queen." The report by the conservative, public policy research foundation is clear in its assertion that ethanol subsidies are a waste of taxpayers’ money. Following are some highlights:

• The subsidy costs the government about $1 billion a year. And according to the Agriculture Dept., each $1 of extra farm income generated by the subsidy costs consumers $4.
• Ethanol is a poorly performing fuel and nearly twice as expensive as gasoline.
• The subsidy increases the price of corn from 22 to 44 cents a bushel, and since farmers buy almost 60% of all corn grown in the U.S., they are out an extra $1 billion a year in higher feed costs.
• The energy required to produce a gallon of ethanol is greater than the petroleum displaced by the ethanol consumption. Thus, ethanol is no deterrent to foreign oil; if anything, it increases net energy consumption.
• Ethanol does not protect the environment, and the Cato Institute says that every major environmental organization in the U.S. opposes the ethanol program. In fact, the EPA had to make a special exemption from its clean air regulations to allow ethanol to be used in polluted cities.

For a copy of the report, written by James Bovard, go to www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-241.html, or call Cato’s director of natural resource studies at 202-789-5240.

While on the subject of stupid ways to spend consumers’ taxes, the U.S. military and space program are notorious for glaring examples of absurdity. However, in an e-mail we received recently, one taxpayer describes an imaginative way to pay Uncle Sam. Following is his letter to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Enclosed is my 1999 tax return and payment. Please note the enclosed newspaper article, which states that the Pentagon has paid $171.50 for hammers and that NASA paid $600 for a toilet seat.

Please also find enclosed four toilet seats (value $2,400) and six hammers (value $1,029), for a total payment of $3,429. Since my "taxes due" total $3,407, please credit the $22 overpayment and apply it to the Presidential Election Fund as noted on my return. May I suggest that you send the above mentioned fund a 11D2-in. screw as payment (see attached article, "HUD paid $22 for a 11D2-in. Phillips head screw").

Governmental spending creativity has been a real inspiration to me and it has been my pleasurable experience to apply the intricacies to my tax remittal process. And, I can’t wait until next year.

Several items have come to our attention lately that make one wonder how governments can be so effective at wasting our money.

Just when you thought we escaped the Y2K threat without a scratch, a Washington Times article exposes a critical error. It seems that the only sign of a Y2K problem around Washington, D.C., occurred with the millennium countdown clock, which is outside the U.S. Naval Observatory, which also houses the home of Vice President (alias, Mr. High Tech and Inventor of the Internet) Al Gore.

On New Year’s Eve, the clock was 1-1/2 hours behind schedule. Perhaps this explains why the fireworks display was delayed. As thousands of D.C., Virginia and Maryland residents stood by to watch the fireworks at midnight, all they saw was the spectacular lighting of the Washington monument – then nothing. The real show didn’t start until one AM, after many had gone home disappointed, only to hear the fireworks when they were back indoors.

Speaking of fireworks, New Year’s celebrations from around the world were broadcast on television in the U.S. as they occurred. And without doubt, those in Sydney, Australia, and Paris, France, were the best. The display at the Eiffel Tower can best be described as elegant. On the other hand, the show in London brought graceless and clumsy to mind. The "River of Fire" that Tony Blair planned was more a Blanket of Smog, and we can only imagine the consternation that Greenpeace must have felt. With all the rhetoric over fossil fuels’ contribution to "global warming," it is positively ironic that mammoth gas flares were included in the festivities.

Then there is our recent experience with our new, $35-million weather supercomputer. In January, a nor’easter came blowing through and dumped as much as 16 in. of snow in the Washington D.C. region, but the computer completely missed making the prediction. As a matter of fact, the computer had already missed an earlier call when it forecast a coming snowfall, which didn’t happen.

Taking advantage of the situation while campaigning elsewhere, Al Gore joked that folks in Washington don’t know how to cope with snow. He said, "In Washington, you get one flake and forget it."

Now, we’ve long held the opinion that Washington had too many flakes, we just didn’t realize that it only took one to make things hopeless.

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