There we have it, that’s the reason for a bill that’s just been passed by the House. Who gives a shit about the people dying of starvation in other countries when we could screw up the system to make sure that we’ve got plenty of things that go bang?
The background to this is an absurdity called the Jones Act. This, among other provisions (for example, insisting that cargo between two US ports must be carried on US-owned, crewed, built and flagged ships) insists that food aid being sent off to the starving elsewhere must be carried on those US-built, owned, crewed and flagged ships. You’ll not be surprised to find out that said US ships are rather more expensive than those using cheaper labor, or those using rather newer, more fuel efficient, engines. But there we have it from the horse’s arse, one of our elected Solons, that this is actually the point. We want to make food aid more expensive so that, for however much we decide to spend on food aid, we can alleviate less starvation.
The specific thing that this bill does is raise the percentage of such aid that must be carried on those Jones Act ships, thus making the food aid system even more inefficient. Quite rightly the Obama Administration opposes this change. Don’t, however, think that this is a respectable Democrat arguing with idiot Republicans: the AFL/CIO is over on the Jones Act side here. It’s not a party partisan dispute, it’s one about the ability to use food aid to favor certain pockets instead of the purpose of food aid, to feed the hungry.
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