Even the Tea Party is pissed about the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’
Everybody’s gotta pitch in to bring down Hulk, er, Monsanto.
Feeling angry about the “Monsanto Protection Act”? You know, the sneakily passed piece of legislation that allows GMO crops to be planted even in defiance of a court order? Well, you’re not alone! The law is so scary that it’s inspiring outrage from the far right.
It’s always a delight to see the left and right agree on anything, and when it comes to fighting genetically modified giant Monsanto, it may well take just that kind of a passionate coalition to get anything done.
But it’s not the GMO issue that’s turning Tea Party Patriot Dustin Siggins’ stomach — it’s the precedent this could set for other corporations that might want legal immunity. From Siggins’ blog:
This all can be boiled down into a single, common phrase: a special interest loophole, and a doozy at that. We are used to subsidies, which give your tax dollars to companies to give them advantages over competitors. We are used to special interest tax loopholes and tax credits, which provide competitive and financial benefits to those with friends in Congress. And we are familiar with regulatory burden increases, which often prevent smaller companies from competing against larger ones because of the cost of compliance.
However, this is a different kind of special interest giveaway altogether. This is a situation in which a company is given the ability to ignore court orders, in what boils down to a deregulation scheme for a particular set of industries.
Great, Siggins! Now let’s skip the Kumbaya and the flag-waving, and get right to creating a broad-based coalition with the potential of defeating Monsanto, k?
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
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Even the Tea Party is pissed about the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’
