Scams and Dirty Money
KEVIN HASSETT'S Sunday column, "Ethanol's a scam, and Bush has fallen for it," lays out the ethanol scam that costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year.
This subsidy to corn farmers is needed because the farming and distillation of ethanol actually requires more energy than the ethanol provides.
Hassett hits the nail on the head when he stated that the largest producer of ethanol had contributed millions of dollars over the last three years to candidates and political parties.
However, his solution of paying ransom to the bribers is a poor one.
Instead, we should all support the clean-money election funding proposals around the country. In California, AB 583 has passed the Assembly and is going to the Senate. On the federal front, HR 3099 is a clean-money bill.
These bills allow candidates to use public funds for their election campaigns. In exchange, they agree not to take any special interest contributions.
This costs about $5 per person per year and will save taxpayers 10 times that much in scams, as described by Hassett.
For more information check out clean money on the Internet.
Bill Walzer
Berkeley
See the article on Oakland Tribune website
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)