OPINIONSUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Fairfield, Ia. — Drive around this Jeffer-son County seat with Mayor Ed Malloy and you begin to understand why this town is considered unique in Iowa.

The obvious reason is the presence of Maharishi University of Management that is a magnet for Transcendental Meditation devotees from around the world, which is evident as Malloy wheels around the down-town square. It is lined with unusual shops, art galleries, bookstores, restaurants offer-ing international fare, imported chocolates and teas. A monthly First Friday Art Walk draws a cross-section of the community and people from around the state.

Just off the square, across from the Jef-ferson County Courthouse, sits the com-munity center and the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts. It is home to what is described as the only profes-sional live musical theater company in the state and attracts a variety of performing arts events.

A couple of blocks on is Malloy’s oil trad-ing company, housed in an office building built according to the ancient Indian prin-ciples of Maharishi Vedic architecture that seeks harmony with the energy of the sun and nature for the well-being of occupants. Many examples of Vedic design can be seen in Fairfield and in Maharishi Vedic City, in-corporated in recent years.

Fairfield is a town of contrasts, where you can see a BMW parked on the street next to a pickup truck. The native popula-tion has increasingly accepted immigrants who brought a different culture and an

entrepreneurial spirit that invigo-rates the city’s economy. Fairfield has earned a long list of plaudits in numerous “best of” categories, in-cluding the April Smithsonian mag-

azine’s list of “The 20 Best Small Towns in America.”

Fairfield lives greenAmong the striking things about Fairfield

is its ethic of self-sufficient sustainability. This manifests itself in many ways, such as a cooperative organic food market and a so-lar-powered radio station run by volunteers. Solar panels sprout from roofs and from freestanding structures. The city of Fair-field has an energy efficiency coordinator, whose salary is shared by the city and by Iowa State University’s extension service.

In the city’s industrial park, Sky Factory uses backlit photography to create outdoor scenes for ceilings of hospitals and medical clinics. The plant has set aside space next to its parking lot for an array of solar panels and a garden tended by employees.

On the opposite side of town, a mostly off-the-grid subdivision called Abundance EcoVillage captures energy from the wind and the sun, and draws air for heating and cooling from the Earth.

This conservation ethic runs deeper in the community than these outward

symbols of alternative and renewable en-ergy sources. As a participant in Alliant Energy’s Hometown Rewards program, Fairfield took on a challenge beginning on Earth Day in 2012 to reduce its overall ener-gy consumption by 4 percent. It hit that and exceeded it: Fairfield residents shaved elec-tric and natural gas consumption by 8.5 per-cent and businesses cut theirs by 8 percent.

Working with Alliant, which provided marketing and technical support, the city held workshops for residents and business owners, some 4,500 participants pledged to meet energy savings goals by doing laundry in cold water and installing com-pact fluorescent light bulbs. A fund was created to make loans for new windows and insulation.

The total savings of 10.2 million kilo-watt hours of gas and electricity is enough energy to power 1,077 homes for one year, according to Alliant, which independently verified the energy savings. Besides the savings on power bills, Alliant dangled a carrot in the form of a grant of nearly $19,000, which the city put toward installa-tion of solar panels on the roof of the Fair-field Library this summer.

Alliant Energy spokesman Justin Foss attributed the success of this impressive en-ergy savings to the level of community en-gagement, working at a neighbor-to-neigh-bor level creating peer pressure that came from an active group that led the charge.

“This is a program that works really well for Fairfield,” Foss said. “You can’t do that in every community.”

Fairfield defines community action

Jefferson County town shows how to ‘manufacture dreams’ through civic collaboration

Greenhouse in a new Maharishi University classroom building. COPYRIGHT 2013 MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT/USED WITH PERMISSION

Located in the heart of downtown, the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center is a gathering place designed to showcase a world of arts and culture, and features the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts. WERNER ELMKER

Fairfield, Ia. — Drive around this Jefferson Countyseat with Mayor Ed Malloy and you begin to under-stand why this town is considered unique in Iowa.

The obvious reason is the presence of MaharishiUniversity of Managementthat is a magnet for tran-scendental meditation devo-tees from around the world,which is evident as Malloywheels around the downtownsquare. It is lined with un-usual shops, art galleries,bookstores, restaurantsoffering international fare,imported chocolates andteas. A monthly First FridayArt Walk draws a cross-section of the communityand people from around the state.

Just off the square, across from the JeffersonCounty Courthouse, sits the community center andthe Stephen Sondheim Center for the PerformingArts. It is home to what is described as the only pro-fessional live musical theater company in the stateand attracts a variety of performing arts events.

A couple of blocks on is Malloy’s oil trading com-pany, housed in an office building built according tothe ancient Indian principles of Maharishi Vedicarchitecture that seeks harmony with the energy ofthe sun and nature for the well-being of occupants.

FAIRFIELDDEFINES COMMUNITY ACTION

Jefferson County town showshow to ‘manufacture dreams’

through civic collaboration

Shops on the square in downtown Fairfield, a mixture of classic Main Street Iowa and international fare. REGISTER FILE PHOTO

Greenhouse in a new Maharishi University classroom building.COPYRIGHT 2013 MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT/USED WITH PERMISSION See FAIRFIELD, Page 4OP

roxlaird@dmreg.comROX LAIRD

OpinionDesMoinesRegister.com/opinion

THE FIRST AMENDMENTCongress shall make no law respecting anestablishment of religion, or prohibiting thefree exercise thereof; or abridging the freedomof speech, or the press, or the right of thepeople peaceably to assemble, and to petitionthe Government for a redress of grievances.

| NOVEMBER 3, 2013 | METRO EDITION

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LETTERS 2OP | ROSES & THISTLES 2OP | REKHA BASU 3OP | JOHN CARLSON 3OP

Obradovich talks with Jack Hatch about proposed income tax cut PAGE 3OP

If you live in Polk Countyand dial 911, an ambulancewill arrive at your housewithin about 6 minutes. If

you live in Montgomery Coun-ty, you will wait three times aslong. In about half of Iowacounties, the state doesn’t evenreport the average responsetime for emergency medicalservices. Perhaps it takes ahalf hour or more. The publicdoesn’t know.

The person who shows up inthe ambulance may be a highschool student pulled fromclass. While physicians andnurses in hospitals spent yearsreceiving a medical educationand are overseen by stateboards that license and sanc-tion bad actors, the workerwho transports you to the hos-pital and cares for you on theway may have minimal train-ing and might have a longcriminal record.

This reality about emergen-cy care in Iowa has been ex-posed over the past months byDes Moines Register reporterClark Kauffman. Unlike fire-fighting services, communitiesin Iowa are not required to

provide any emergency med-ical services. The state doesn’trequire background checks ofthese EMS workers and hasnever imposed a fine for anyambulance service violation,including those that put pa-tients at risk. Kauffman re-ported about an EMS tech-nician with 23 convictions andanother who tried to kill ateenager he had raped.

There is something wrongwhen an Iowan experiencingchest pain might be better offcalling a neighbor than calling911 to get to the hospital.

Sen. Mary Jo Wilhelm, D-Cresco, has long recognizedthis. Even before the Registerstarted reporting on the issue,the former EMS technicianshepherded a bill through theIowa Senate to study access toemergency services. But thebill died in the Iowa House.Then a provision to create thetask force and make a smallappropriation to pay for it wasincluded in a larger bill that

passed both houses of the IowaLegislature. That was progress— until Gov. Terry Branstadvetoed creation of the taskforce.

The governor, a former DesMoines medical school presi-dent, thought a task force ofexperts to study and makerecommendations related toemergency services was not agood use of government mon-ey. He later said he doesn’twant to micromanage the IowaDepartment of Public Health,which houses a bureau that isresponsible for overseeingemergency medical services.

So Wilhelm pushed for thecreation of a legislative com-mittee to tackle the issue. Thegroup of 10 lawmakers fromboth political parties will meetfor the first time this week andhear from health professionals,state officials and the public.The goal is to make recom-mendations to improve accessto emergency care. Thesemeetings are the first steptoward lawmakers understand-ing what is going on, Wilhelmsaid.

Such a discussion is wel-come. There are, however,some simple, no-brainerchanges lawmakers could ap-prove in Iowa law and stateregulations when they convenein January. These include ade-quately funding the bureau inthe public health departmentthat is responsible for certify-ing EMTs; requiring back-ground checks for these indi-viduals; and requiring publicreporting of response times byambulances in every county.

However, there are otherissues lawmakers must ad-dress that are not so simple.Iowa is a rural state where

there may be too few peopleinterested in volunteering tobe EMTs. It may be difficultfor some cash-strapped citiesto provide services. Electedofficials will need to examinehow other states provide high-quality emergency care inrural areas. They should alsoconsider whether emergencymedical services should be aresponsibility of Iowa’s hospi-tals. Rural hospitals may admitfew patients on an average dayand already employ medicalprofessionals who might beable to staff ambulances head-ing to the scene of an emergen-cy to help someone in trouble.

Fifty years ago, funeraldirectors responded to half thecalls for ambulances in thiscountry. Hearses were the onlyvehicles large enough to ac-commodate stretchers, and itwas difficult for someone in avehicle to communicate with ahospital. The infrastructure ofthe U.S. health care system hascome a long way since then.It’s time to bring Iowa’s emer-gency services into the 21stcentury. Doing so is a matter oflife and death for Iowans.

EMS STUDY BEGINSThe Emergency Medical ServicesStudy Committee will meet thisweek to hear from state officials,EMS experts and the public. The10-member committee of statelawmakers will ultimately makerecommendations related to emer-gency medical services in Iowa. Thecommittee meets Nov. 6 from 10a.m. to 3 p.m. and Nov. 7 from 9a.m. to noon in room 116 at theState Capitol in Des Moines. Themeetings are open to the public.

The Register’sEditorial

Iowans should not think that our state’s emergency medical services can’t be improved

Lawmaker study is a good beginning

Ever notice how somegovernment programsdraw the ire of almost

everyone? Conservatives,liberals, environmentalists,libertarians, business, labor,consumers and grouchy tax-payers are all opposed.

Yet these programs go on asthough directed by an unstop-pable particle beam from aneighboring galaxy. The publicrarely sees who in Washingtonkeeps the outrage in motion,and that’s how “they” get awaywith it.

The sugar support programis one such curiosity. We willget into the “who” and “how,”but first an explanation of whyalmost everyone hates it.

Americans pay about threetimes the world price of sugarbecause of a complex farmprogram designed to greatlyenrich U.S. sugar growers andprocessors, in actuality a hand-ful of families.

Among other things, it lim-its imports of far cheaper sug-ar from impoverished Car-ibbean countries. It providestaxpayer-backed loans: Ifprices slip, the borrowers re-pay their loans with sugar,which taxpayers must sell at aloss or store at their own ex-pense.

In sum, the policy providesa government-guaranteedincome to cane sugar pro-ducers in Florida and sugarbeet growers in Minnesota andMichigan.

Who pays? American con-sumers, for starters. The ma-nipulated price of sugaramounts to a tax estimated at$3 billion a year.

The domestic sugar indus-try argues that 142,000 jobs

Another View

Growersenriched byCongress’very sweet ‘candyland’

FROMA HARROP is acolumnist for theProvidence (R.I.)Journal. Contact:fharrop@projo.com.

See HARROP, Page 4OP

(#79400) Adapted from the November 3, 2013 issue of The Des Moines Register. © 2013 Gannett Co., Inc. For more information about reprints from The Des Moines Register, visit PARS International Corp. at www.gannettreprints.com.

This PDF is authorized for electronic distribution and limited print distribution through December 12, 2014.

Located in Fairfield, Iowa, MUM is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business. Visitors Weekends are held throughout the year. For more information, call the Admissions Office at 800-369-6480 or visit http://www.mum.edu. http://www.travelfairfield.com

Fairfield, Ia. — Maharishi University of Management here set out three years ago to build a new classroom building for its sus-tainable living program that lived up to the department’s mission. The finished product may be the greenest building in Iowa.

The building is constructed of com-pressed-earthen blocks manufactured by students on site and load-bearing timbers consisting of full-size aspen tree trunks. It generates more energy than it con-sumes. It collects and treats rain water from the roof for drinking and flushing. Daylight supplies two-thirds of light in classrooms and offices during the day.

Passive and active solar energy is stored in 600 tons of earthen blocks and a 5,000-gal-lon water tank, which is supplemented with wind-generated electricity. It has a green-house for growing plants indoors and ed-ible landscaping outdoors.

The Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Center is performing exactly as intended. In fact, it is “exceeding our expectations in energy efficiency in cooling and heat-ing seasons,” said Lawrence Gamble, pro-fessor of sustainable living at MUM and an irrepressible evangelist on the subject of renewable energy and natural resource conservation.

Standing beside the center’s electric meter outside the building recently, Gamble pointed to the spinning wheel that measures electric consumption. The wheel was going backward, however, meaning the building was returning pow-er to the electric grid. In fact, according to Gamble, the center produces about a third more energy than it consumes. And it consumes less than a quarter of what an ordinary building of the same size would consume.

Besides employing nearly every imagin-able green building technique, the Sustain-able Living Center design follows the prin-ciples of Maharishi Vedic architecture, an ancient design philosophy from India that puts buildings in harmony with nature. It is hard to imagine a building that does a better job of meeting that goal.

A foot in both worldsEd Malloy is perhaps the best example of how

Fairfield has melded small town Iowa values with the exotic culture inspired by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Malloy is an immigrant from New York, practices TM and lives in a spacious and handsome home built to the exacting Vedic principles. He moves comfortably among traditional and nontraditional Fairfield, which

is evident from his support by voters for more than a decade.Malloy says Fairfield’s can-do culture begins with setting ambi-

tious goals, but achievements are celebrated by the entire commu-nity, not just the strong core of Transcendental Meditation follow-ers fed by Maharishi University.

In Fairfield, Malloy said, “people go out and manufacture their dreams. When we all share the pride, that’s when every-thing changes.”

This classroom buildingis lesson in sustainability

Fairfield defines community action

The Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Center on the campus of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. COPYRIGHT 2013 MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT/USED

WITH PERMISSION

Lawrence Gamble, professor of sustain-able living at Maharishi University. SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER

Page 4OP | Sunday, November 3, 2013 Metro Edition | Des Moines Sunday Register

Many examples of Vedicdesign can be seen in Fair-field and in Maharishi VedicCity, incorporated in recentyears.

Fairfield is a town of con-trasts, where you can see aBMW parked on the streetnext to a pickup truck. Thenative population has in-creasingly accepted immi-grants who brought a differ-ent culture and an entrepre-neurial spirit that invigoratesthe city’s economy. Fairfieldhas earned a long list of plau-dits in numerous “best of”categories, including theApril Smithsonian magazine’slist of “The 20 Best SmallTowns in America.”

Fairfield lives green

Among the striking thingsabout Fairfield is its ethic ofself-sufficient sustainability.This manifests itself in manyways, such as a cooperativeorganic food market and asolar-powered radio stationrun by volunteers. Solar pan-els sprout from roofs andfrom freestanding structures.The city of Fairfield has anenergy efficiency coordina-tor, whose salary is shared bythe city and by Iowa StateUniversity’s extension ser-vice.

In the city’s industrialpark, Sky Factory uses back-lit photography to createoutdoor scenes for ceilings ofhospitals and medical clinics.The plant has set aside spacenext to its parking lot for anarray of solar panels and agarden tended by employees.

On the opposite side oftown, a mostly off-the-gridsubdivision called AbundanceEcoVillage captures energyfrom the wind and the sun,and draws air for heating andcooling from the Earth.

This conservation ethicruns deeper in the communi-ty than these outward sym-bols of alternative and renew-able energy sources. As aparticipant in Alliant Ener-gy’s Hometown Rewardsprogram, Fairfield took on achallenge beginning on EarthDay in 2012 to reduce itsoverall energy consumptionby 4 percent. It hit that andexceeded it: Fairfield resi-dents shaved electric andnatural gas consumption by8.5 percent and businessescut theirs by 8 percent.

Working with Alliant,

which provided marketingand technical support, thecity held workshops for resi-dents and business owners,some 4,500 participantspledged to meet energy sav-ings goals by doing laundry incold water and installingcompact fluorescent lightbulbs. A fund was created tomake loans for new windowsand insulation.

The total savings of 10.2million kilowatt hours of gasand electricity is enoughenergy to power 1,077 homesfor one year, according toAlliant, which independentlyverified the energy savings.Besides the savings on powerbills, Alliant dangled a carrotin the form of a grant of near-ly $19,000, which the city puttoward installation of solarpanels on the roof of the Fair-field Library this summer.

Alliant Energy spokesmanJustin Foss attributed thesuccess of this impressiveenergy savings to the level ofcommunity engagement,working at a neighbor-to-neighbor level creating peerpressure that came from anactive group that led thecharge.

“This is a program thatworks really well for Fair-field,” Foss said. “You can’tdo that in every community.”

A foot in both worlds

Ed Malloy is perhaps thebest example of how Fairfieldhas melded small town Iowavalues with the exotic cultureinspired by Maharishi Ma-

hesh Yogi. Mal-loy is an im-migrant fromNew York, prac-tices TM andlives in a spa-cious and hand-some home builtto the exactingVedic principles.

He moves comfortablyamong traditional and non-traditional Fairfield, which isevident from his support byvoters for more than a dec-ade.

Malloy says Fairfield’scan-do culture begins withsetting ambitious goals, butachievements are celebratedby the entire community, notjust the strong core of tran-scendental meditation follow-ers fed by Maharishi Univer-sity.

In Fairfield, Malloy said,“people go out and manu-facture their dreams. Whenwe all share the pride, that’swhen everything changes.”

FAIRFIELDContinued from Page 1OP

Ed Malloy

Fairfield, Ia. — Maharishi University of Man-agement here set out three years ago to build anew classroom building for its sustainable livingprogram that lived up to the department’s mis-sion. The finished product may be the greenestbuilding in Iowa.

The building is constructed of compressed-earthen blocks manufactured by students on siteand load-bearing timbers consisting of full-sizeaspen tree trunks. It generates more energythan it consumes. It collects and treats rain-water from the roof for drinking and flushing.Daylight supplies two-thirds of light in class-rooms and offices during the day. Passive andactive solar energy is stored in 600 tons of earth-en blocks and a 5,000-gallon water tank, which issupplemented with wind-generated electricity.It has a greenhouse for growing plants indoorsand edible landscaping outdoors.

The Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Cen-ter is performing exactly as intended. In fact, itis “exceeding our expectations in energy effi-ciency in cooling and heating seasons,” saidLawrence Gamble, professor of sustainableliving at MUM and an irrepressible evangeliston the subject of renewable energy and naturalresource conservation.

Standing beside the center’s electric meteroutside the building recently, Gamble pointed tothe spinning wheel that measures electric consumption. The wheel was going backward,however, meaning the building was returning power to the electric grid. In fact, accord-ing to Gamble, the center produces about a third more energy than it consumes. And itconsumes less than a quarter of what an ordinary building of the same size would con-sume.

Besides employing nearly every imaginable green building technique, the SustainableLiving Center design follows the principles of Maharishi Vedic architecture, an ancientdesign philosophy from India that puts buildings in harmony with nature. It is hard toimagine a building that does a better job of meeting that goal.

This classroom buildingis lesson in sustainability

The Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Center on the campus of Maharishi University ofManagement in Fairfield. COPYRIGHT 2013 MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT/USED BY PERMISSION

Lawrence Gamble, professor ofsustainable living at MaharishiUniversity. SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER

Sen. Rick Bertrand of SiouxCity, a Republican whip in theIowa Senate, wrote this openletter to Gov. Terry Branstad.Contact: rick.bertrand@legis.iowa.gov.

Dear Gov. Branstad, History is in the air as we

approach the 2014 GeneralAssembly. Three years ago,disgruntled Iowans sent a loudmessage at the ballot box andelected you again along withthe largest legislative class ofnon-traditional candidates inour state’s history.

Unfortunately, as we tookoffice in 2010 our state was$800 million in the red, as ourcash reserves depleted andone-time funding sources werebeing used to carry out our dayto day state spending. Sadly,corporate investment and ex-pansion was stagnant as Iowahad become one of the worstbusiness climates in the nation.

It was very clear to any

honest observer that our greatstate was simply being mis-managed and misled.

Governor, as you know, thelast three years have beenvery difficult and challengingfor Iowans. We in the Legisla-

ture have had ourbattles, yet withyour leadershipwe did find com-mon ground andachieve positive,tangible results. Ibelieve thatIowans are proudof how Repub-licans and Demo-crats this past

year found compromise,fought through party lines, andmoved Iowa forward withhistoric property tax, educa-tion and health care reforms.

Iowans are proud that weprioritized and made toughbudget choices. Iowans areproud that we no longer shuf-fle paper numbers and use

one-time funding sources forour state’s expenses. Iowansare proud that our budget issound, our cash reserves arereplenished and spending is inline with revenue.

Governor, agriculture isstrong, and with your leader-ship, Iowa has landed billionsof dollars in new manufactur-ing. Living wages are on therise, while unemploymentcontinues to fall as Iowa’s fi-nancial health is now one of thestrongest in the nation.

Governor, nice job.But here’s the rub: As Iowa’s

economy has strengthened, taxrevenues have also risen, andjust as embarrassing as it wasfor the state to have had an$800 million deficit, it is just aswrong for Iowans to now havea near $1 billion surplus.

The bottom line is we areover-taxing the working peopleof Iowa. It’s time for the Legis-lature to right this ship, and wewill once again call upon your

leadership. Last year, I proposed S.F. 53,

which would have refunded$300 to each individual and$750 to each Iowa family. Itwas crushed on the Senatefloor as Iowans told lawmak-ers, “It’s time to fix our state’sinfrastructure” and to use this“over-taxation” on key stateprojects and problems thatwouldn’t expand the footprintof government. In other words,use these dollars on projectsthat would only require a one-time funding investment.

Iowans asked us to thinkbig.

Governor, Iowans under-stand that the ability to movecommerce in a timely andcost-effective manner is key toour ongoing manufacturingand agriculture expansion. It isproven that when it comes totransportation and infrastruc-ture, “If you build it, prosper-ity will come.”

With the last stretch of U.S.

Highway 20 for expansion tofour lanes now in sight, wehave a historic opportunity tochange the economic land-scape of Iowa forever.

Governor, it’s time to finishHighway 20. Current estimatesproject that the completion ofthis economic corridor willrequire an investment of ap-proximately $350 million to$400 million.

Governor, I propose a wayto make this historic economicinvestment with responsibilityand simplicity. Investing $90million a year for four yearsgets it done. No budget ad-justments; no revenue burden.

Governor, with your 2014election right around the cor-ner, Iowans, particularly west-ern Iowans, are asking aboutthe completion of Highway 20.“If not now, when?” they ask.

The time is now, and it’stime to lead. Let’s invest in allof Iowa. Let’s finish Highway20.

Iowa View

Governor, let’s invest in finishing Highway 20

RickBertrand

would be lost if the sugar pro-gram ended. But the U.S. Com-merce Department reported in2006 that inflated sugar priceskill three manufacturing jobsfor every sugar-growing andprocessing job saved.

Many U.S. candy-makershave seen no choice but tomove their factories and theirjobs to countries with normalsugar prices. Among the ex-amples:

Atkinson Candy Co., of Luf-kin, Texas, recently sent most

of its peppermint candy pro-duction to Guatemala. “It’s adamn shame,” company Presi-dent Eric Atkinson told theWall Street Journal. He said hehad to move 60 jobs to CentralAmerica that should havestayed here.

Jelly Belly Candy Co., basedin Fairfield, Calif., has againexpanded its factory in Thai-land. Sugar makes up half thecost of the product, Jelly BellyPresident Bob Simpson said.High U.S. sugar costs haveforced him to raise his pricesseveral times over the past 10years.

Reluctant to take their

small family-owned businessesto other countries, domesticcandy-makers had been reduc-ing the amount of sugar intheir product. It is no accidentthat from 2002 to 2012, import-ed candy contained 33 percentmore sugar.

As Congress debated lastspring whether to continue theprogram, Big Sugar’s lobbyingforce, the American SugarAlliance, ran an ad in theWashington Post, hotly head-lined “Big Candy’s Greed.” Thecandy-makers, the ad charged,were trying “to boost theiralready bloated profits.”

In Florida, meanwhile, thegiant sugar plantations —

propped up by taxpayers andabused consumers — dumpfertilizer runoff into the Ever-glades, threatening the state’sprecious water sources.

It should surprise no onethat the American Sugar Alli-ance greatly out-spent theconfectioners to win the affec-tions of our elected representa-tives. Thus, in a recent closevote, the House again savedthe program. Followers ofpartisan politics will be in-trigued to see so-called liberalscombining with so-called con-servatives to preserve thistravesty.

On the Democratic side,

Florida Reps. Debbie Wasser-man Schultz and Alcee Has-tings both voted for the pro-gram. On the Republican side,House Speaker John Boehnerof Ohio and Rep. Frank Lucasof Oklahoma and chairman ofthe House Agriculture Com-mittee, also voted in favor.

As he backed the govern-ment shutdown, Lucas wasspeechifying for a budget “thatreduces spending and elim-inates waste and abuse in gov-ernment programs.”

How the politicians getaway with this is simple: Thevoters aren’t paying attention.

Only when they do will thisabsurdity stop.

HARROPContinued from Page 1OP