Joe Knollenberg has a hypocrisy problem

I found an article today in the New York Sun where Joe Knollenberg is talking about giving wasteful subsidies to farmers who live in New York City, but have farms outside the city. Joe thinks it's wasteful use of taxpayer dollars.

It made me think, why is Joe against these farm subsidies, but yet he's in favor of subsidies for oil companies that are making billions of dollars in profits off the backs of Americans struggling to put fuel in their cars to get to their jobs. To my way of thinking if you're against "wasteful" spending, it would seem that the oil companies certainly don't need the subsidies and tax breaks that Congress passed when the Republicans were in control.

What do you say, Joe? Shall we end the tax credits for oil companies? I think it's time to invest that money in alternative energy. $6 billion can go a long way.

In an open letter to their colleagues, two congressmen wrote that the subsidies to Manhattan farmers are a true example of government waste. "The American taxpayer deserves better than having their taxpayer dollars used to pay urban 'farmers' in Manhattan," Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Rep. Joseph Knollenberg of Michigan said.

The award is intended to point out that federal funding is funneled to wealthy New Yorkers who live on the densely packed island of Manhattan, nowhere near a farm. Most New Yorkers on the list are not farming in the city but own farms outside New York.

Deliberations over a new farm bill are under way, and Congress is supposed to reach an agreement by April 18. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed that the bill give subsidies only to farmers whose adjusted gross income is less than $200,000 a year.

Mr. Knollenberg, who supports an income cap for farm subsidies, said that under the current plan federal funding is given away to millionaires, CEOs, and entrepreneurs.

"The farmers in Manhattan aren't dumb. They know what they are doing. They are making money on the property and they are making money on the subsidy that is passed along with it, and I guess they are doing it because they can," he said

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