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11/22/2003

The Petroleum Party and the Ethanol Party Cut a Deal

In general, I'm not one to blame Senator Daschle for the disasters of the last three years -- he's been dealt bad hands, even with his one vote majority for eighteen months, and played them well. He can't do more than he has the votes to do.

So I can deal with the fact that Tom Daschle has decided not to support a filibuster of the Medicare bill, while nonetheless vociferously opposing it. I've argued before that that's probably the wisest path politically for Democrats, even if they could mount an effective filibuster, although it will come at a very high cost in terms of policy.

But I can't tolerate the fact that Daschle is actively supporting the energy bill. I don't know the details of that bill as well as I do Medicare, but it's all pretty obvious: $24 billion in new tax breaks for industries that don't need them, another $72 billion in spending for the same (for a simple, no-comment breakdown of the giveaways, see this chart from Taxpayers for Common Sense), the elimination of the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the overriding of legal process for victims of MTBE. Where's the good?

For Daschle, there is only one explanation: He is a Democrat, but he also belongs to the Ethanol Party. The Ethanol Party believes that their states' economies depend on even more subsidized corn than they are already feeding to overweight children in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. For years, Congress was dominated by the Petroleum Party. Now it is joined by the Ethanol Party. Competitors in theory, they find common ground in Washington, and both can benefit when they vote together. Neither can function in a real competitive marketplace; both products depend on heavy government subsidy for their viability. Both depend on great American myths -- the wildcatter, the family farmer -- that have no relation to the distant corporations whose lobbyists have bought these benefits.

Every Senator has to vote his or her state's interests, at least as the state sees it. Senator Harkin is a charter member of the Ethanol Party; there's nothing to be done about that. But Daschle is the elected leader of the Democratic Party. There are times when he has to choose between the two, and this is one of them.

Posted by on 11/22/2003 at 08:08 PM in Current Affairs, Decembrist archives |

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