Farm Subsidies, Media Ownership and Global Warming
The Senate approves major farm legislation with a veto-proof majority.
The Senate votes to override the FCC and make media ownership regulations more strict.
Sen. John McCain delivers a major speech on global warming.
1. FOOD
The Senate approves major farm legislation with a veto-proof majority.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on how the bill got passed:
“The nearly $300 billion (over five-years) Farm Bill simply paid off every special interest. Farmers got their direct payments, their counter-cyclical payments, their price support loan amounts, their disaster funds, etc. Some producers who weren’t subsidized before – the fruit, vegetable, and nut producers – got some gobs of R&D money that opens the door to future subsidies. The bill includes what was lauded as the “first-ever livestock title,” another group that wasn’t subsidized before.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
The Senate votes to override the FCC and make media ownership regulations more strict.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on how “new media” makes old arguments about ownership obsolete:
“The presence of new media [outlets] should change the way we look at the current debate over media ownership. The ongoing digital revolution is creating a vibrant journalistic world that exists, thankfully, outside the ambit of government regulation. No longer is it necessary to see the debate as a simple dichotomy with “big media” on one side (deregulation) and “media diversity” on the other side (regulation). This way of thinking is stuck in the analog world. The digital world is much more complex—and it requires a new way of thinking about media ownership.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Sen. John McCain delivers a major speech on global warming.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Steven Milloy on McCain’s embarrassing performance:
“McCain said that ‘A cap-and-trade policy will send a signal that will be heard and welcomed all across the American economy.’ This is unlikely since cap-and-trade’s economic harms have been exposed and condemned by the likes of the Congressional Budget Office, the Environmental Protection Agency and renown economists such as Alan Greenspan and Arthur Laffer. Even the Clinton.” administration warned of the economic harms that would be caused by cap-and-trade
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