$7 a gallon milk and the joys of our ever-so-productive (NOT!) congress

[thewayne]

It's entirely possible that because of Congressional (i.e. House) inaction we could be facing $7 for a gallon of milk, if we could find it. The problem? The House has not passed the Farm Bill, and if they don't pass it by the end of the year, the legislation will roll back to something called Permanent Law passed in 1949 which will require the Feds to buy huge quantities of dairy product to bolster the industry.

The purpose was to help the industry when it was small and the country was growing rapidly. Now, if it happens, the US Department of Agriculture will be buying hundredweights of product for $38, compared to the normal market price of $18-19 a hundredweight. I wonder to whom the dairy producers will be selling?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/12/04/248648797/why-7-per-gallon-milk-looms-once-again

Meanwhile, John Boehner thinks the House has been tremendously productive. They've passed 140 bills, so he thinks they're terrifically productive compared to the Senate, which has passed only 39. Obama has signed only 56 pieces of legislation, I'm not quite sure how that math works out. The difference is that the House will pass laws that stand little or no chance of being passed by the Senate, much less get signed in to law, while the Senate won't waste their time considering legislation that won't be considered by the House.


Thus again proving the aphorism that if Pro is the opposite of Con, Congress is....


http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/12/03/248565341/lawmakers-in-name-only-congress-reaches-productivity-lows?sc=17&f=1001

Comments

[silveradept]

It's like the Congress believes that only doing symbolic things for less than half of the year will magically result in a country able to run itself. We could use a loyal opposition at this point.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Apparently the RNC have given up on directly repealing the Affordable Care Act, they've signed up over 100,000 people through healthcare.gov in the last couple of weeks, but they're still doing whisper campaigns against it. I guess that gives them something to do. They also apparently have given up on another government shutdown.

I think they still think that there's going to be a magical RNC landslide next November that will result in them getting veto-proof margins in both houses of Congress. 'Tain't gonna happen.

[silveradept]

It won't, but neither will the Dems be able to push them out and generate their own veto-proof majorities. There has to be ideological change in the GOP before work can get done again. That won't happen until they get repeatedly whomped.