Gee, do you think this is a step to tax or eliminate meat completely? How much will the liberal/progressive wing try to hide in federal codes including the tax code to alter the way we live our lives?
The Nanny State now has a serious foot in the door, way past the seat belt and helmet and smoking nonsense they have been putting into place. Now they want to engineer, through government policy, how we live on private property and in our homes.
Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers
For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.
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It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.
The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."
Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.
"We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said.
EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.
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The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.
"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Hell, Mr. Change, aka BO, hasn't even been elected president and these leftist losers are coming out of the woodwork.
If you want real change, root all these losers out of the bureaucracy and then cut what's left of the bureaucracy by half. How long until we can throw these bums out of office and government?
