The U.S. Department of Agriculture has doled out millions of dollars in subsidies to farms on which farming isn’t actually taking place, according a new report from government watchdogs. Billions more have gone towards supporting farms that don’t grow the crops for which they’re being subsidized. USDA gave nearly $3 …
A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture states that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, more commonly known as food stamps) helps “alleviate” poverty. Essentially, the report says that by including the dollar amount of food stamps as part of a family’s income, fewer families are considered poor—or …
Food-stamp fraud and the government’s failed attempts to stop it were the focus of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing yesterday. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) called the hearing in response to a Scripps Howard News Service investigative report exposing widespread abuse. The investigation revealed that retailers who lost …
Yesterday, after word got out (via a post here on the Foundry) regarding new “mandatory fees” on Christmas trees imposed by the Obama Department of Agriculture (USDA), the White House moved quickly to suspend implementation of the new tax. The fees, which were supported by an industry group called the …
President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees. In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David …
It’s rather ironic that the activists who routinely lament government’s failure to protect public health are among the most vociferous proponents of expanding government powers. This month’s massive egg recall, involving more than 500 million eggs from two Iowa farms, is but the latest example. The recall, initiated August 13, …
President Obama’s Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, rolled out the administration’s new “National Export Initiative (NEI)” today at the National Press Club. The way Secretary Locke described it, the NEI sounds like a great vehicle to create jobs—government jobs. Secretary Locke began by saying that the “NEI represents the first …
