The Walkerville Weekly Reader

National Desk: Hard-hitting journalism from your completely un-biased (pinky swear!) reporters in Walkerville, VA.

Walkerville, VA
Monday, December 9, 2024
Carolyn Purcell, Editor

U.S. PIRG does not support ending subsidies?

Phineas from Boston writes that the U.S. PIRG does not support ending subsidies, just some subsidies. PIRG spokesperson Moses Corvus responds to the allegations.

The fact that U.S. PIRG and Ryan both oppose agricultural subsidies does not mean that U.S. PIRG supported Ryan ending agricultural subsidies. A basic Google search immediately reveals several press statements from U.S. PIRG opposing the Ryan Plan. Please correct this erroneous reporting.

Google? Never heard of it. We did return to PIRG spokesperson Moses Corvus and confronted him with your allegation that PIRG does not support ending subsidies. At his home on Sugarcandy Mountain in Northern Virginia, Mr. Corvus told us that “Your helpful reader is correct that one flaw of the Ryan plan is that it reduces federal involvement in agriculture and ends subsidies for colleges and universities. We certainly do not want to end the subsidies that provide us with student funds.”

Mr. Corvus added that while subsidies PIRG disagrees with should be ended, the best replacement “is more taxes and more regulations on the affected industries; unfortunately, the Ryan plan levels taxes and reduces regulations. We see a different solution than Representative Ryan on the other side of today’s dark economic environment: everlasting fields of government regulations that target the wealthy and politically-connected in favor of the middle-class. It will be a happy country where lump sums grow on hedgefunds and taxpayers can rest forever from their labors.”

We asked him how this happy country would be funded if taxpayers rest, and Mr. Corvus responded enigmatically that while the PIRG recognizes that “all taxpayers are equal,” it also acknowledges that “some are more equal than others.”

Comment on U.S. PIRG supports Ryan budget plan: U.S. Public Interest Research Groups calls on Democratic Senate, White House to pass end to subsidies, level playing field for “small businesses and companies that aren’t as connected” as companies like Monsanto, Cargill, Solyndra, and GM.