ArcaMax

I've got to hand it to Washington's Republican policymakers. They've come up with a truly remarkable way that, they promise, will vastly expand the number of small businesses in America. Great!

This is personal for me, for I grew up in a family that had a Main Street business in small-town Texas, so I know how hard it is for little guys to battle the raw monopoly power of corporate chains. Thus, I cheered the GOP ... until I learned that their small business proposal is just another big business scam.

Far from actually increasing the number of small enterprises, Trump bureaucrats are merely redefining "small" to include BIG. For example, the Small Business Administration has long categorized a business as small if it had less than $25 million in yearly sales. But they've now jacked that definition up by 1,000%! Indeed, even some billion-dollar giants can now -- HOCUS POCUS -- qualify as small.

This is much worse than a statistical ruse, for it means that very large outfits with Wall Street backing, Washington lobbyists and slick corporate lawyers will suddenly take the grants, contracts and other government benefits intended to advance genuine Main Street innovators and competitors. In short, the GOP's cynical scheme is using the small business label to overpower those very enterprises. It's a deliberate rigging of the rules by today's right-wing government officials to help big business grab public money -- increasing the power of corporate elites to eliminate competitors... and further monopolize our economy.

Remember this deceit when Republican congress critters run corporate-financed election ads this fall claiming to "looove" small business. Yeah ... love it to death.

TWO-LEGGED HOGS TRYING TO RULE AG POLICY

Warning: This is a sob story that might bring you to tears. Or make you upchuck in disgust.

It's about hogs -- both the four-legged species and the more piggish, two-legged breed of agribusiness executives. The latter have long profited from cruel abuse of millions of hogs caged in their monopolistic system and now the agbiz giants have launched a lobbying campaign called SOB -- "Save Our Bacon." It's not a plea to save the abused animals, but to save the abusers' profits!

It turns out that most consumers don't like animal abuse, so states are passing laws to prevent such corporate practices. This has led to a vibrant new market for humanely raised pork, already gaining more than a fourth of national pork sales.

"Ouch," squealed the factory farm giants, feeling the pinch of real competition. Rather than clean up their methods, though, the monopolists have raced to Washington, demanding that Congress "save their bacon" by artificially and autocratically rigging the market. Their Save Our Bacon act would usurp states' rights to set their own standards for animal welfare.

This is not an "academic free market issue." In recent state ballot initiatives, voters have overwhelmingly endorsed ethical standards for animal agriculture. Moreover, responsible family-farm producers have quickly responded to this growing new market, upgrading their facilities to meet the new state standards of humane production.

Yet, rather than embracing this success for animals, farmers and consumers -- here come tiny cliques of corporate profiteers like the National Pork Producers Council. They're wielding their Big Money lobbying muscle, trying to overrule the public interest ... and the political will of America's majority.

Which side is your member of Congress on? For information, go to Compassion in World Farming: ciwf.org.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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