Millions In Farm Subsidies Flow Freely To DC Residents Who Don’t Actually Farm
” Washington, D.C., doesn’t have many farms, or farmers. Yet thousands of residents in and around the nation’s capital receive millions of dollars every year in federal farm subsidies, including working-class residents in Southeast, wealthy lobbyists on K Street and well-connected lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
In neighboring Chevy Chase, Md., one of the nation’s wealthiest communities, lawyers, lobbyists and at least one psychologist collected nearly $342,000 in taxpayer farm subsidies between 2008 and 2011, according to the watchdog group Open the Books.
Taxpayer subsidies were also paid out to Gerald Cassidy, the founder of one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms, Cassidy & Associates; Charlie Stenholm, a former congressman; and Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack continues to receive subsides even though he has overseen the agency that pays them since 2009.
” All of it is entirely legal,” said Adam Andrzejewski, founder of Open the Books, a group that created an online database and mobile app to track the subsidies.
To illustrate just how far the subsidy program has strayed from its original purpose, Open the Books calculated payments going to three major cities with few, if any, modern ties to farming: Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago. Taxpayers sent $30 million to those residents over the past four years to compensate them for converting farmland to conservation areas and for growing soybeans, cotton, corn, rice and other crops.”
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Tag Archive: Chuck Grassley
Records Of Christine O’Donnell Tax Snooping Disappear
” Delaware state officials have told Congress that they likely destroyed the computer records that would show when and how often they accessed Christine O’Donnell’s personal tax records and acknowledged that a newspaper article was used as the sole justification for snooping into the former GOP Senate candidate’s tax history.
The revelations to Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office came Tuesday as the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration, the government’s chief watchdog for the Internal Revenue Service, formally reopened its investigation into the matter by re-interviewing Ms. O’Donnell.”
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FBI Director Admits Domestic Use Of Drones For Surveillance
” The FBI uses drones for domestic surveillance purposes, the head of the agency told Congress early Wednesday.
Robert Mueller, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirmed to lawmakers that the FBI owns several unmanned aerial vehicles, but has not adopted any strict policies or guidelines yet to govern the use of the controversial aircraft.
“Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on US soil?” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Mr Mueller during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Yes,” Mueller responded bluntly, adding that the FBI’s operation of drones is “very seldom.” “
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Democrat Admits Background Checks Won’t Work — Wants to Pass It Anyway
” Though she still supports stricter gun control measures, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), in a rare moment of honesty from the anti-gun crowd, admitted to the The New York Times that the Manchin-Toomey amendment, which would expand background checks to gun shows and online gun sales, wouldn’t stop criminals from obtaining a firearm for nefarious purposes.
[A] separate gun measure, an anti-trafficking bill, is the subject of talks between Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, and two Republican senators who voted no on the background check bill. The Republicans, Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, are discussing ways they might support the bill, which would criminalize the shipping or transfer of guns to someone who is barred from possessing a firearm.”
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Related articles
- Top gun control nut admits her ideas don’t work, but we should pass more laws anyway (breitbart.com)
- Efforts to revive gun-control discussions in works on Capitol Hill (upi.com)
- Sen. Gillibrand on Gun Control: Ineffectiveness + Redundancy = Synergy (reason.com)
- The Senate Isn’t Done With Gun Control (thedailybeast.com)
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Grassley: Boston Bombings Raise Immigration Questions
” A Republican senator said Friday the bombings in Boston raise questions about gaps in the U.S. immigration system, but a Democratic senator rejected such a connection and cautioned against conflating the Boston events with a new immigration bill.
The exchange between Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unfolded as the Senate Judiciary Committee convened the first hearing on sweeping, bipartisan legislation to remake the U.S. immigration system. The hearing was overshadowed by the drama in Boston, where police were hunting one of two ethnic Chechen brothers alleged to have carried out the bombings and the other was killed.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had been scheduled to testify, but her appearance was canceled.
“Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” Grassley, the committee’s senior Republican, said in his opening statement. “How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the United States? How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill?” “
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