Comments on: Pressing Grapes Into Wine With Your Taxes

N.Y. Congressman Has Earmarked Millions For Wine Industry Research

[lx13]

Thank you for covering this story. Its hard to believe that publicly funded, and privately owned happens so much in this country! It seems so scandalous that the public money, is used to fund all these pet projects, and when the projects become profitable, the profits go back to the PRIVATELY owned company, and the public, who funded it, sees nothing, except maybe a high price at the store, to purchase the "wine" , or the publicly funded research "drugs", now sold at a profit...back to the public..

How on earth can the government justify spending this amount of money to study grapes, but not on health care for little sick babies? Priorities people! oh, wait, Chicago School of Economics at work here, no social spending, and privatize every industry, while at the same time let the private enterprise be supported by public funding...... scandalous.

[lx13]

Thank you for covering this story. Its hard to believe that publicly funded, and privately owned happens so much in this country! It seems so scandalous that the public money, is used to fund all these pet projects, and when the projects become profitable, the profits go back to the PRIVATELY owned company, and the public, who funded it, sees nothing, except maybe a high price at the store, to purchase the "wine" , or the publicly funded research "drugs", now sold at a profit...back to the public..

How on earth can the government justify spending this amount of money to study grapes, but not on health care for little sick babies? Priorities people! oh, wait, Chicago School of Economics at work here, no social spending, and privatize every industry, while at the same time let the private enterprise be supported by public funding...... scandalous.

[nolibnoneoco]

wine is not a major concern when we have our girls and boys and our seasoned soldiers dieing in a foolish blood bath. get real , we can study wine by ourselves on saturday night. if you can turn war into wine then ok study how , other wise no more whineing about sientifics of grapes.

[nolibnoneoco]

ask him to leave and do not look back .

[dweeb9]

This story was completely retarded. You made it sound as if all scientific research should be spent on things like cancer research. What you dummies don''t realize is how there are many areas of scientific research that yield results that benefit us, and this research needs funding. Of course more funds should be given to more important areas, but that doesn''t mean nothing should go to others, like researching grapes.

[dweeb9]

This story was completely retarded. You made it sound as if all scientific research should be spent on things like cancer research. What you dummies don''t realize is how there are many areas of scientific research that yield results that benefit us, and this research needs funding. Of course more funds should be given to more important areas, but that doesn''t mean nothing should go to others, like researching grapes.

[toolmangler-2009]

Thievery is thievery whether it is done by a holdup man or a Gvmnt rep. One goes to jail if caught and the other is most times re-elected.

[Krazcarl]

ruby646...I kew an entomologist a long time ago he told me what you do with government research money is keep 2 sets of papers one indicating failure one with the real results so later you pattern the discovery and keep it for yourself the other way the government gets all rights it''s common practice at major universities that''s why so little is developed by government funding it''s being abused and not one individual has been charged with it there breakthrough always comes after the funding has dried up or they give a very little to look good and get more cash a very common practice why were so far behind the ball there waiting till things are cool so they can get the proceeds from their discoveries.

[likeitis5050]

Boy, am I glad the issue of earmarks is behind us, what with the bill that was passed just a month ago!!! Imagine how bad it would be if they hadn''t protected us from earmarks attached to important bills!!

We need to look at this differently. Earmarks are the new industry that has replaced all the other industries now operating in China and India. And to quote an old f..art Congressman who has been rooted in his position for some 40 years, when everyone was in an uproar over the last pay raise they immediately gave themselves once in office..."Oh, they always complain when we give ourselves money but they get over it soon enough"... And he should have added, "and what are they going to do about it? Nothing!"

[rudy654-2009]

The problem I have with this kind of tax funded research, the very same kind that is done with drug research at tax payer expense, is that whatever successes come out of this research, it comes back to us as a charge on our account. For example, we pay taxes for drug research, the companies develop a new medication, then turn around and charge us megabucks for it as if they came up with the whole thing on their own. Sort of like our taxes going to fund the gas companies. Yeah, see, we pay for them to go and explore new areas and drill for petroleum, etc. and then they turn around and charge as $90 a barrel, giving us nothing back for our investment. And of course, don''t pretend not to know that they use those wonderful profits to buy off the politicians of all parties to keep that funding going. See how crazy it all is?

[speakinup]

"The cost of this building is what we spend in Iraq in two hours," Hinchey said. - fugging democrap

Gee, why don''t we give me two million then if it is only two hours worth. I''ll tell you why NOT mister Hinchey - fuggin Democrap - because those grapes ain''t gonna save your life.

DEMS. They just don''t get it it, do they !

If we don''t call it pork - it ain''t pork! Another pile of dogshist for the flies to land on and eat. Where is feelfree and J-w anyway ?

[trailzzone]

Congressman Hinchey is right. The Bush Administration wastes more money every 20 minutes in Iraq. Why don''t you report that instead of wasting our time with poorly researched stories like this!

[trailzzone]

Congressman Hinchey is right. The Bush Administration wastes more money every 20 minutes in Iraq. Why don''t you report that instead of wasting our time with poorly researched stories like this!

[kewlchat-2009]

This stuff is just part of why our country it bound for failure politicians just playing a game to get each other ritch while millions if not billions in america cant even meet our basic needs for food water and shelter it makes me sick...
my father fought for this country now its being run by a bunch of thieves and the media yes you msnbc and fox and cnn you make it possiable for them to do that thanks.. for helping to destroy our once* great nation with all your greed!!!!!!!!!!!
When will we wake up and stand up for ourselfs?

[Krazcarl]

This is beyond retarded I grew up on a farm and am partial to farming but this paying off political debts a blind man can see it. With a trillion dollar deficit we have 0 cash for these pork barrel projects period it''s time to start censuring these idiots,

[mj_ag_man]

Being a horticulture and viticulture student/researcher, I happen to agree with Congressman Hinchey as to there not being nearly enough federal spending on agricultural research. Not only is the USDA lacking funding, manpower and support on Capitol Hill, but the United States, home to the single largest agricultural empire in the world (after all, we feed nearly a third of the world through exports) but we have slipped so far in the research catagory that we have been relying on nations such as Thailand and The Philippines for nearly half of our current research. All the while, the diseases have increased, new insects have arrived from foreign shore and an increasing reliance on chemical fertilizers have all eroded our strong agricultural infrastructure. I, for one, only hope that our federal government will continue to expand, not wither, our well deserved spending on our food supply. It''s also about time our representatives realize they can spend money wiser when spending it on our own nation, not ones that are eternal money-pits overseas. Thanks for reading this.