So Duane Riedel and John Thune walk into a bar. Duane Riedel, the former chairman of the Brown County Republican Party, says, “Dagnabit, If things need to be done in South Dakota, we’ll do it. We don’t need to expect government to do it all.” The senior Senator from South Dakota says “Cheers!” clinks his glass with Duane… then rushes off to the nearest microphone to take credit for bringing $133 million more in federal road dollars to South Dakota.
Senator Thune tells KELO-TV the additional government dollars in this long-delayed transportation bill will benefit his friends back in the rail industry, as well as South Dakota agriculture:
The bill tackles the nation’s deteriorated highways and infrastructure. As for South Dakota, Thune says the legislation will provide eight million dollars a year to a new freight funding program. The Senator says one of the biggest problems for farmers and producers in the state is getting their product to the market.
“Agriculture drives our economy. As agriculture goes so does South Dakota’s economy and that’s why putting policies in place that enable and create the right conditions for agricultures to prosper,” Thune said [Leland Steva, “Thune Talks About New Highway Bill,” KELO-TV, 2015.12.02].
After 37 short-term extensions (a.k.a., kickings of cans down the road), we apparently needed a handout for corporate agriculture to make a real road bill happen:
U.S. senators from the Dakotas say a highway bill that Congress is poised to pass this week restores $3 billion in cuts to crop insurance made in the budget agreement completed in October, and also helps some agricultural fuel haulers.
…Farm-state lawmakers and agricultural groups were angered by the budget deal, saying the cut to crop insurance would hurt farmers and possibly increase the need for emergency disaster aid. They also said it would undermine improvements in the 2014 farm bill to crop insurance, which costs more than $9 billion annually [link added; “Highway Bill in Congress Would Restore Crop Insurance Cuts,” AP via SeattlePI, 2015.12.03].
Yeah, that’s what Republicans like Mike Rounds are talking about! More government money to solve our problems!
Senator Thune may be getting us a road bill, but he and his colleagues couldn’t muster up the courage to craft a long-term funding solution. Instead, they are relying on one-time money:
In the current deal, Congress still couldn’t agree to a long-term plan for paying for infrastructure. It left federal fuel taxes untouched at 1993 levels (18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline), even though the per-gallon fees don’t keep up with inflation and have generated less money as vehicles improve their fuel efficiency. But this time Congress found money to boost funding for several years. The cash comes from selling oil from the Strategic Reserve, raiding reserves held by the Federal Reserves and cutting bank dividends from the Fed [Daniel C. Vock, “A Decade in the Making, Congress Strikes a Deal on Transportation Funding“].
Roads and crop insurance are important to John Thune, but apparently not important enough to define sustainable funding sources.
I should head down to the bar with Duane Riedel. With pork-taculous Republican leaders like John Thune and Mike Rounds, Duane Riedel must be feeling pretty poorly about his Grand Old Party.
Our Republican congress members are not fiscal conservatives. They’re far too generous diverting taxpayer money to pad insurance company profits. That $3 billion they got restored is not for crop insurance for farmers but rather it is strictly pork for insurance companies, as detailed in Lance Nixon’s 11/22/15 Capital Journal article:
““The cuts are targeted toward the profit margins of insurance providers. But they make it more likely that we will see more mergers in the industry and cuts in the services which insurance companies provide to farmers,” Sen. Mike Rounds said.”
“[Farm Bureau’s Scott] “VanderWal said the $3 billion budget cut could push some insurance providers “below break-even” if it goes through. “It doesn’t cut down on the program, the actual crop insurance that’s available, but it cuts down on the mechanism that’s available to get it to the farmers, and that’s what concerns us,” VanderWal said.”
It’s sickening that they care so little for taxpayers (actual people) and so much for big corporations (fictional people).
And how did our spendthrift senators get the $3 billion cut to insurance company profit margins reversed? By opposing a clean highway funding bill that didn’t contain the giveaway to insurance companies. They essentially said they don’t want highway money unless they can throw money at insurance companies too.
O yeah. Selling on open market from the Petroleum Reserve really makes a lot of sense with the low price of crude as it is!
don Juan Thune and his mates just voted to make sure people on terror watch lists can still buy guns like the ones used in the San Bernardino murders.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/262030-senate-blocks-tying-gun-fight-to-obamacare-repeal
Thune is the Photo op of america.Obama bad repeal obama care Obama weak on defense go, .What a wind bag he is.
While our Republican representatives seem indeed somewhat hypocritical on spending federal money, don’t we really want that money for our state (not for Republican fraudsters)?
I have a hard time challenging their efforts to bring federal money to SD, although I might question their priorities and prefer to see such funds used to help our infrastructure and our needy friends and neighbors.
That $3 billion for insurance company profit is the worst kind of stupid spending. It’s like when Rounds gave TransCanada a tax break for doing what it was going to do anyway – build Keystone I across South Dakota. It’s like when Rounds had a state employee running EB-5 and told that employee, “Hey, instead of paying your salary, Joop, I’m just going to give you that $120 million revenue stream that would have come to the state. No, I won’t just give it to you. I’ll pay you to take it.” Now he says to insurance companies, “Here’s $3 billion extra taxpayer money to insulate you from having to make normal business decisions and you don’t have to run your business efficiently.”
You can’t trust Republicans with money, especially Rounds. Not with actual money. Not with borrowed money. He’ll use the public’s plane to fly friends to ballgames and pay the bill only after he gets caught. He’ll use federal money to build a canal for his boat and increase his property values. And he’ll hand out free taxpayer money like candy to his corporate buddies. Republicans run government like a mafia enterprise.
Thune and the senators are the Dr. Frankenstein of poor planning, budget hijinks, and short-term thinking. Barry has the details.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/the-dumbest-way-to-fund-america-s-infrastructure
Thune and others just don’t get it. A person can’t buy a car without proof of a job or source of income to make payments. That would be described as irresponsible . Craft a highway bill and welfare relief for insurance companies in the same manner and you have the …….to call yourself a Senator?
Combine John’s and Charlie’s points for guidance on good policy: investments in our most basic needs include a solid plan for ongoing funding for those needs. We should be making sure we always have funds for roads. If we can’t drive to the store, the factory, or the school, everything else falls apart.