by Curt Kovener 
Farmer John got a production loan last year to put his crops in the ground. Fuel prices were up, fertilizer costs were up, seed prices and equipment prices were likewise, and as in all years, he went into debt to stay in business, to pay his bills and commitments until the harvest. The anticipated commodity pricing predicted corn and bean prices would be higher owing to government guarantees to buy those crops, in part, for alternative, environmentally responsible fuel like biodiesel from soybeans and ethynanol from corn to wean us from Mideast oil…measures mandated by the federal government.
But farming is the original form of gambling way before even before the Hoosier Lottery was approved. Late spring rains flooded out his crop last year and after a second loan to re-plant, the drought made his final crop production and eventual income less than enough to repay his production loans even with the government paying him the guaranteed crop prices.
So to put in this year’s crop, he asked his banker to raise his debt ceiling which the banker approved because of the government spending guarantees and the loan officer thought Farmer John, who farmed several thousand acres, was too big to fail.
This is why Farmer John agrees with Tea Partiers that it is fiscally responsible to not raise the federal debt ceiling and to cut all government spending and not increase his taxes.
•Elected officials and manufacturing lobbyists oppose government regulation because it is anti-business, stifles economic development and job creation. If industry has to be responsible for its wastewater and air emissions, it will cause employee layoffs at a time when we have constant high unemployment. We don’t need job-killing regulation, federal leaders warn.
Then because of government regulation somewhere across the east or west pond requires their country’s businesses to use environmentally responsible, biodegradable bags no longer made from Mideast petroleum products, orders at the nearby green factory which manufactures bags from corn go up…in turn helping Farmer John…and more workers, formerly unemployed, are hired to meet demand.
Thus here is another example of job killing government regulation.
•And many folks are opposed to government earmarks. It has been labeled as foolish spending for political purposes. It is how a ‘bridge to nowhere’ gets built. Or a historic covered bridge gets re-built.
And how a housing rehab program for low income residents gets funded in a small town. And a government mandated wastewater improvement project gets funded in a small town. And how some fire stations get built throughout the county.
That’s what those vile, nasty earmarks do.
But maybe the real reason so many intellectual folks opposed raising the debt ceiling is because they are really afraid if the ceiling is raised anymore they won’t be able to paint it?
