{"id":131224,"date":"2012-07-11T10:09:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T14:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=131224"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:03:58","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:03:58","slug":"thats-my-mitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/07\/11\/thats-my-mitt\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s My Mitt!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> Mitt Romney Visits Subsidized Farms, Knocks Big Government Spending<\/a> by Wayne Barrett in The Daily Beast.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> The black-and-white cows lumbering behind Mitt Romney during his sit-down with Bob Schieffer last Sunday on Face the Nation actually feed off the same big government the presidential candidate spent much of the interview deriding. When Romney told Schieffer that \u201cthe only solution to taming an out-of-control spending government is to cut spending,\u201d the bovines in the background could be forgiven for worrying.<\/p>\n

Jeff and Karen Zuck, who own the 160-acre, 117-head dairy farm that was Romney\u2019s chosen backdrop for the rare non-Fox interview, have collected $195,631 in federal subsidies since 1995. The $44,549 in grants they got in 2009, Barack Obama\u2019s first year in office, was almost twice their previous high in 2002, and was a consequence of the heightened subsidies the Obama administration rushed to deliver as milk prices plummeted in the recession. Only 20 farms in subsidy-rich Lebanon County, Penn., received more federal aid than the Zucks in 2009, and only 30 exceeded the Zuck subsidy over the prior decade and a half. But the farm didn\u2019t even appear on the top 50 list in George W. Bush\u2019s final year in office, when they received a measly $1,177 in subsidies, less than three percent of what Obama gave them the next year.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Karen Zuck told The Daily Beast that she and her husband back Romney. \u201cI haven\u2019t liked Obama since before he was president,\u201d said Zuck, who had a hard time pinpointing exactly what she likes about Romney, other than her belief that he\u2019s \u201cgoing to do more\u201d about \u201ckeeping regulations down.\u201d Acknowledging that 2009 and 2010 were their \u201cdarkest years,\u201d Zuck admitted that \u201cmaybe we did get something from it,\u201d a reference to the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Program (DELAP) that Obama jump-started in 2009 ($10,243 for the Zucks), and the Milk Income Loss Contract Payment Program that Obama infused with new funding ($34,944 for the Zucks). \u201cWe get enough,\u201d said Zuck. \u201cBut we\u2019d rather not,\u201d she added, insisting that she\u2019d prefer to let milk prices rise on their own.<\/p>\n

Despite their cows\u2019 starring role on the CBS set, the Zucks were never invited to join the Saturday afternoon taping. In fact, Romney never actually set foot on the farm, even though it was billed as a farm visit. Instead he sat in the front yard of Dave and Ceal Bamberger, who own a car-repair and heating-oil delivery company, and whose house is across the way from the Zuck farm. The Bambergers\u2019 son-in-law, Mark Thomas, is the Cornwall Borough Mayor, and Romney\u2019s staff reached out to him for tips on a good secluded location. He picked his in-laws\u2019 house.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like a closed set,\u201d Karen Zuck said. \u201cWe watched the bus back in and the Secret Service was there on the Bamberger yard.\u201d Since they were at church the next morning when the interview aired, the Zucks never saw their cows\u2019 star turn.<\/p>\n

The awkward staging was reminiscent of Romney\u2019s April appearance at an empty Ohio factory that, it turned out, had closed seven months before Obama took office. Or his February rally at Detroit\u2019s 65,000-seat Ford Field, before an audience of about 1000 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get enough,\u201d said Zuck. \u201cBut we\u2019d rather not,\u201d she added, insisting that she\u2019d prefer to let milk prices rise on their own.<\/p>\n

Lebanon may seem like a funny place for Romney to take his swipe at big government: out of Pennsylvania\u2019s 64 counties, it\u2019s the fifth largest recipient of federal farm subsidies, and the Zuck farm is right across the border from the No.-1 recipient, Lancaster County (Romney\u2019s already visited there too). Romney\u2019s six-state tour\u2014carrying the message he announced at the outset that \u201cWashington\u2019s big government agenda should not smother small-town dreams\u201d\u2014is actually a reminder of how much small towns, too, depend on big government aid.<\/p>\n

Maybe Romney was happy he missed meeting the Zucks and their cows. He recently endorsed the Paul Ryan budget, which cuts $30 billion in farm subsidies over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: Mitt Romney Visits Subsidized Farms, Knocks Big Government Spending by Wayne Barrett in The Daily Beast. The Text: The black-and-white cows lumbering behind Mitt Romney during his sit-down with Bob Schieffer last Sunday on Face the Nation actually feed off the same big government the presidential candidate spent much of the interview deriding. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThat's My Mitt!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Visit subsidized farm for support, bash big government spending. 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