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Mr. Smith flips off Washington
Sen. Bob Smith deserts the GOP in the middle of his long-shot bid for the presidency.
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But whoever gains or loses on the business end of this deal, the sure victims of the cartel are poor families and their children all over America. Supporting Goliath against these Davids is not a small betrayal for Clinton, who has long been allied with the Children's Defense Fund (also silent on this issue), and who is constantly promising that her "concern" for children is the rationale for her political career.

Driving up the price of milk cuts into the welfare budgets of millions of recipients trying to provide their children with a proper diet. It increases the costs of the sacred school lunches that Republicans were hung out to dry for tampering with not long ago. And its sole purpose is to protect inefficient milk producers from competition that would make more milk available to more households at reduced costs.

The failure of the press to hold the first lady accountable for this hypocrisy would be inexplicable but for the bias that relentlessly runs through the media. If Newt Gingrich were casting his vote with the milk cartel, you can bet that the words "mean-spirited" would appear in the story, and the howls of consumer advocates would be duly recorded. Left-wing advocates of "social justice" and crusaders for the poor would be up in arms over the issue, instead of comatose as they seem to be now.

As for Republicans, many of them are also snugly in bed with regional dairy interests, and thus unwilling to make this an issue against Clinton. Even those who would fight about the issue haven't a clue as to how to do so in ways that would mobilize the constituencies most affected. One way to start would be to do what Democrats do, and to shout from every media rooftop: "Hillary's milk cartel is a price break for the wealthy on the backs of the poor!"

But don't hold your breath. If Republicans do fight back, their rallying cry will be "deregulation" and letting the market work, things that only economists and business professors care about. That's why when bipartisan forces converge, as they do on this issue, instead of being a gain for ordinary Americans, it usually adds up to a loss.
salon.com | July 14, 1999

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