Quote of the Day: "When a government takes over a people’s economic life it becomes absolute, and when it has become absolute it destroys the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning of the people it governs." -- Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959) Source: The Guaranteed Life http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Maxwell.Anderson.Quote.981D

Subject: The New President's Promises

Politicians make promises. The President-elect made a lot of them. Chris Edwards at the Cato Institue has provided a helpful summary of some of them.

We want to draw attention to these . . .

* Eliminate “ineffective government programs.”
* Expose corporate welfare.
* Enforce tougher new standards on the Office of Management and Budget’s current “PART” program, which grades program effectiveness.
* “Enforc[e] standards when programs continually fail” by ”cutting program budgets or eliminating programs entirely” or other reforms.
* “Eliminate government programs that are not performing” by means of a “line-by-line” budget review.

These are pretty good promises. We applaud them. We'd like to help the President-elect keep them. Were he to do so, it would mark change. Other Presidents, from both parties, have made similar promises. They have not kept them.

We vote for change.

To cause change by keeping these promises the President-elect will need not only the will to do so, but also help from Congress. This is where we can assist him. Let's be helpful.

The President-elect faces a target rich environment in terms of keeping these promises. There are too many examples of programs that don't work, and too many case of corporate welfare. One way we can help is by urging Congress and the new President to focus on some of the worst offenders first.

We assert that ethanol subsidies are one place to focus. Now, let the howls of outrage begin . . .

We get complaints every time we attack ethanol subsidies. Many of these complaints question the science that argues against these subsidies, but most complainers still agree that the subsidies should be ended (along with many others).

Okay, let's agree to agree.

Ethanol subsidies should end, even if some of the scientific case against ethanol from food crops may be uncertain.

But, we would be remiss if we didn't inform you that there is new news from the scientific front. The current (January 2009) issue of Discover magazine provides more ammunition against the ethanol subsidy . . .

* Meeting this year's ethanol requirements, as mandated in the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, will consume one third of the nation's corn crop! Imagine what that will do to your food prices!
* A new study due out in the February issue of "Science" indicates once again that using food crops to create ethanol actually adds more carbon to the atmosphere than it saves
* And a new study from the University of Texas indicates that ethanol from food crops will exert a severe drain on available water resources

Please send Congress a message asking them to end all ethanol subsidies and mandates. You can use your personal comments to paste in the bullet points from Discover magazine above, and also the list of Obama promises. Ask your elected representatives to help the President-elect keep these promises by ending ethanol subsidies and mandates.

You can send your message using our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System.

Please also forward this message to others and Digg the blog version of this message on our website. http://www.downsizedc.org/

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S.  The new Congress has barely started business. Not all new office holders have Internet contact pages yet. We are updating our system to reflect the new Congress just as quickly as the information comes to us. If you have one or more new elected representatives, its possible that you won't be able to get a message to them. But your message should go through to any of your representatives that remain the same, or for which we have already received new information. Don't let this transition deter you from taking action. Your message will get through to someone, and will make a difference.