Harkin to introduce bill on livestock competition
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says livestock producers would see more competition and fairness in their industry under legislation he's introducing today (Thursday). Harkin, a democrat, says the bill is needed to offer a series of changes in response to failures at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prevent manipulative, anti-competitive behavior.
Harkin says these large companies "exert a lot of power to skew the market in their favor." His legislation is called the “Competitive and Fair Agricultural Markets Act of 2006” and he details some of its elements. Harkin says his bill would make certain the U-S-D-A has the authority to "go after" the bad actors in the marketplace
In case you don't remember this is in response to the report that says the USDA does not enforce the Packers and Stockyards act like they should. In fact they actively discourage investigation of complaints against the act.
Why I find this announcement from Harkin so interesting is that the USDA doesn't enforce the law as it is, why are we going to give the USDA more chance not to enforce the law? Maybe some kind of investigation is needed as to who is buying off officials of the USDA to turn their heads and not investigate the whole Packer and Stockyard issue instead of just passing more laws. Some money and/or favors has to be trading hands for the USDA to be doing this.
One thing I have to say though, this is a little better than Conrad Burns just asking them to do a better job. That was flat stupid.
I have often noticed that a bribe has that effect - it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman. Graham Greene
Everyone always believed in the corruption; no one could ever prove it. Now we find that it happens in fact, all the way to the top. What a shameful thing!