Like to grill burgers? Get ready to pay big bucks

Oh how I so love government mandates…NOT! In this case, it’s the ethanol mandate for gasoline. As you have noticed, the Federal Government in its guise of the Environmental Protection Agency forces gas stations to mix in 10% ethanol into each gallon of gas. The results, (Aside from damage to fuels systems and engines), isn’t surprising. Food costs are skyrocketing.

The United States is in the midst of a drought and the corn crop is not going to be all that good this year. Corn is used by a number of livestock ranchers to feed their animals. Corn is also the major component of ethanol. Because the ranchers need to compete with the ethanol makers, corn prices have been going up. The side effect is that meat prices are also going up…big time.

Up until recently, ethanol manufacturers were being subsidized to produce this stuff. That subsidy ended last January. However, the mandate to put this stuff in the fuel supply was not reversed. Farmers and others have been asking to have this mandate ended, or at least suspended. Obama, in his usual imperious manner, did just the opposite.

Here’s an editorial on this in the Washington Examiner.

To protect ethanol, Obama seeks to inflate meat prices

Campaigning in Missouri Valley, Iowa, yesterday, President Obama announced yet another government spending program — this time designed to inflate meat prices in Midwest swing states. “Today the Department of Agriculture announced that it will buy up to $100 million worth of pork products, $50 million worth of chicken, and $20 million worth of lamb and farm-raised catfish,” Obama explained to reporters in front of a drought-stricken cornfield.

“Prices are low, farmers and ranchers need help, so it makes sense,” Obama explained. “It makes sense for farmers who get to sell more of their product, and it makes sense for taxpayers who will save money because we’re getting food we would have bought anyway at a better price.”

What is this moron thinking? Oh, excuse me. He doesn’t think, he just does whatever will make him look good and buy votes.

None of this makes sense. In fact, Obama’s move only harms American consumers while protecting a corrupt federal program.

Do you guys on the Examiner editorial board think Obama gives a damn? He hasn’t paid for his own groceries in years.

A drought is currently driving down corn production. The shortage of feed is forcing livestock producers to slaughter animals early, putting downward pressure on meat prices in the short run and guaranteeing shortages and higher prices next year. But nature is not the biggest factor in this crisis — the government is. Specifically, the federal government’s ethanol mandate, which requires that 13.2 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol be produced in 2012.

Thanks to the ethanol mandate, more than 40 percent of the nation’s corn crop now goes into the production of a useless fuel that hardly anyone would buy if the government didn’t require it. That’s up from just 17 percent in 2005, before the mandate went into effect. Only 36 percent of the corn crop now goes for feed, and 24 percent goes for food.

Once again we see how the left wing, progressive environmentalist liberals have worked their magic. These mandates were put in place on the theory that it would:

A) Save gasoline
B) Help the environment

As I’ve mentioned in the past, ethanol in the gas does neither. Making the stuff pours huge amounts of CO2 into the air, along with other pollutants and since ethanol isn’t as powerful as gasoline, actually reduces mileage. There are other issues such as wrecking engines and fuel systems in older cars, and what it does to 2-stroke engines should be a crime. Could this be solved?

Obama could solve this problem instantly by suspending the federal ethanol mandate — something his EPA actually can do unilaterally and legally. Instead, Obama will buy up meat — a move that meat producers say won’t help them much anyway. “It doesn’t solve the problem of having enough affordable corn next summer,” industry analyst Steve Meyer told Reuters. “Without changing the ethanol program, nothing can be done,” he said

So, what does this mean to us, the “common people” the SCoaMF cares so little much about? Well, here’s a bit of news from CNS News:

Price of Ground Beef Hits Record High

The average price of ground beef hit a record high in the United States in July, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS has been tracking the average price of a pound of 100% ground beef since 1984. In July, it cost $3.085, up from $3.007 in June. Prior to June, the average cost of 100% ground beef in the United States had never topped $3.00.

Hmm, so much for Sunday Night Meatloaf ((Meatloaf recipes)).

In January 1984, the first month BLS tracked the price off 100% ground beef, the price was $1.29 per pound. Had that price merely tracked the rate of overall inflation, according to the BLS inflation calculator, it would have risen to $2.66 per pound by 2009, when President Obama took office. However, between 1984 and 2009, the average price for a pound of 100% ground beef did not increase as much as overall inflation. Thus, in January 2009, when Obama was inaugurated it was only $2.357.

Since January 2009, the average price for a pound of 100% ground beef would have risen to only $2.52 per pound–if it had tracked the overall rate of inflation. However, the price of 100% ground beef has outpaced overall inflation in the past three and a half years–hitting July’s record price of approximately $3.09.

It is a lot worse than the cost of a Big Mac ((McDonalds Big Mac)) going up however. Since the cost of corn has gone up, people in third world countries, such as Haiti, Ethiopia, etc. can’t afford to buy food. So what happens to them? Mostly they starve to death. Even the Transnational Progressive Nongovernmental Organizations can’t help. They rely on third party funding, either from charities or governmental grants, to allow them to by corn to give to the starving people. Thanks to the economy going into the dumpster, donations are down.

With the budgetary issues, the NGO’s can’t get any money from the Governments as they have in the past. Now, with the costs going up due to Der Fubar’s, with the able assistance of the Progressive elites in Congress and the regulatory agencies, people are going to die.

Now, droughts and failed crops happen. All you can do is try and mitigate the issues when it happens. The SCoaMF is not working to mitigate the problems, he is actively working to make them worse. I guess he likes dead dirty little third world children.

Romney and Ryan can’t do anything about the drought, but they can put a stop to all these destructive mandates. It’s time to send Der Fubar and The Wookie back to Chicago where they can by their own Waygu ((Waygu Beef)) beef out of their own pockets, rather than mine.

Remember in November!

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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