Who Said It?
Mr. Chairman, I am here to confess my reading incomprehension. I have listened to many of my conservative friends talk about the wonders of the free market, of the importance of letting the consumers make their best choices, of keeping government out of economic activity, of the virtues of free trade, but then I look at various agricultural programs like this one. Now, it violates every principle of free market economics known to man and two or three not yet discovered.
So I have been forced to conclude that in all of those great free market texts by Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and all the others that there is a footnote that says, by the way, none of this applies to agriculture. Now, it may be written in high German, and that may be why I have not been able to discern it, but there is no greater contrast in America today than between the free enterprise rhetoric of so many conservatives and the statist, subsidized, inflationary, protectionist, anti-consumer agricultural policies, and this is one of them.
In particular, I have listened to people, and some of us have said let us protect workers and the environment in trade; let us not have unrestricted free trade; but let us have trade that respects worker rights and environmental rights. And we have been excoriated for our lack of concern for poor countries.
There is no greater obstacle, as it is now clear in the Doha round, to the completion of a comprehensive trade policy than the American agricultural policy, with one exception, European agricultural policy, which is much worse and just as phony.
Sugar is an example. This program is an interference with the legitimate efforts at economic self-help in many foreign nations. So I appreciate the leadership of the gentleman from Arizona [Jeff Flake] and the gentleman from Oregon [Roy Blumenauer]. Here is a chance for some of my free-enterprise-professing friends to get honest with themselves, and now maybe we will see some born-again free enterprisers in the agricultural field.
I completely agree with the sentiment – and it’s not the first time I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the speaker…
Good for Barney. I don’t agree with him on a number of things, but he’s always struck me as a genuine person, a rare politician who actually says what he thinks.
Comrades,
I agree. No matter what folks may think of his politics (and I have some VERY strong disagreements with the man) I respect his integrity. He is candid and unashamed of his actions, because he isn’t a hypocrite. He says what he truly believes, and he has remained cordial, or at least civil in every instance where I have watched him debate an issue.
He is the type of politician we need in this country, the type we were supposed to have rising to the top.
Respects,
Gwedd
I’m not surprised – Frank is a lot like my former Senator from IL, Paul Simon. I rarely agreed with him on most issues, but voted for him anyway, because he had a good heart and governed by his conscience. Sometimes that trumps all other concerns.
Frank is more libertarian than liberal. His only real non-libertarian position is his support for social programs. He’s never been much of a fan of regulation or protectionism.