Rep. Neugebauer(TX) on Farm Bill, Obamacare, and Veterans

Open Email to Rep. Neugebauer:

Dear Rep. Neugebauer,
    I have read your newsletter.

FARM BILL    Your first item involved required action by your Committee to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of the US Farm Bill. You said, "Above anything else, our producers [farmers] want certainty. They can’t predict the weather, they can’t make it rain, and they can’t prevent a drought, but they should be able to know what they can expect from our farm programs."    Everybody would like certainty, but certainty is not realistic. There are only degrees of uncertainty, also considered as degrees of risk. True that farmers can't predict the weather or make it rain, but neither can you or any other segment of government. You can only throw taxpayer money to farmers who you believe have been unjustly treated by nature. That's ridiculous!.
    Farming is a business like anything else. It may have more risks, which would then deserve a higher profit than a less risky business. In addition as you well know, crop insurance is readily available to all farmers and the cost can be included in production costs of doing business. Government needs to have no part in such an operation. In fact, the further government stands away from farmers, the more productive they are likely to be.
    I'm sure that neither House members nor Senators are so dense that they have not realized the truth of what I have said. The only reason we continue with farm programs is for local Representatives such as yourself to obtain votes from farmers for your continuity in office with continued handouts. The Soviets had a five-year program, which was bad because it was based on improper ideology, but at least it had a semblance of logic with the objective being to increase production. Congress does not even have that fallback to defend its position of meddling in the farming business.
    I even hesitate to mention the ridiculousness of including a nutrition program, which is food stamps, in a Farm Bill. This is so far out in logic that it is almost unbelievable, but for some reason Congress has embraced this stupid idea. Is the objective to obtain votes? Will all low information voters suddenly vote for the local Representative and Senator who has given them another handout? Likely not. They will vote for Democrats only based upon the fact that Democrats in power have regularly given them handouts. Any Republican who doesn't see this is obviously blinded or is a Communist in disguise.

OBAMACARE    You next spent four paragraphs discussing the deficiencies involving the Obamacare webpage. For some unknown reason, you have fallen into the trap of agreeing with TV political news that this is really important. It is not. It only detracts from the main problem.
    Obamacare is an entitlement program of massive proportions. It will be the many straws that broke the camels back. The US has been moving toward Socialism since World War II, and we are almost there. Obamacare takes money from people who have properly decided to buy medical insurance for themselves and now gives it by government edict to the so-called underprivileged, or shall I say mostly under-attempted achievers, as another entitlement.
    You were part of Congress who voted for Obamacare. Are you now raising a racket against the Obama website in order to distract attention from your fundamental error?
    Let's remember that in two years the Obamacare website will be fully functional and all problems related to its establishment will be forgotten. However, we will not be able to forget Obamacare itself as a drag on the economy and a forced inequality in expenses versus revenues, which will bring the country to oblivion. With you proudly say that you were part of the government that voted for it?

VETERAN HOMELESSNESS
     Here I think we might be on the same page. You said you are attempting to help over 62,000 homeless veterans find homes. Congratulations! You are right on target for reasons I will try to explain.
    The nature of military life is somewhat like slavery. It differs in that an individual is offering himself up for a controlled operation, rather than being physically captured and forced into servitude. From there on, we have gross similarity. For each individual, the military supplies housing, food, clothing, recreation, medical care, and anything else necessary for life. In return, the soldier must obey the orders of its master, which is the military establishment and representatives thereof. He can be forced to perform dangerous assignments, such as exposing himself to life-threatening enemy action, or perform boring or other undesirable actions, such as cleaning latrines. In effect, he is equivalent to what blacks were previously exposed to as slaves on a plantation. However, it is not my objective to castigate the military. Their procedures are necessary, and as I said previously, "soldiers" are mostly there by free choice. Only during war and the so-called "draft" do they fully qualify as slaves.
    "Soldiers" generally volunteer at a young age; 18 years old or so. They have had no experience in earning a living, finding a place to live, buying their own food, handling their own medical problems, etc.. These items have usually been provided by parents. On entering the military, the "soldier" continues his lack of accumulating experience in the standard aspects of living, which most of us become educated to handle. We learn how to write checks, buy food at the supermarket, arrange for financing on an automobile, or house, etc. For the "soldier", the military establishment takes over those responsibilities from the parents, which continues the naivety of the "soldier".
    When a "soldier" retires from the military at the present mandatory age of 62, he is suddenly faced with living requirements with which most of us are completely familiar but with which he has no concept. It is for this reason that many retired veterans are unable to cope and we have 62,000 homeless.
    We could easily say that is their problem and that they will have to learn to cope. However, they have given their best years in the service of our country and for us, and we have a responsibility to see that they are not destitute. Our military system has helped make them what they are, and since the military system is ours, we have the responsibility to be involved, not necessarily as individuals, but as a government function.
    We have a Veterans Administration, but I am not familiar with all of the details of that operation. I know that certain medical benefits are available, but I have some doubt that some of the fundamental conditions for living are supplied by the VA. We should at least have "soldiers homes", where retired veterans can live in a manner consistent with their experience in the military, where they are supplied with reasonably comfortable housing and appropriate food, medical attention and recreation. We apparently do that for prisoners in our state and federal penitentiaries. Should we be doing less for our veterans?