Writes Lance Connelly:

A few weeks ago my hometown was flooded because of a breached dam upstream. A small lake on which I spent many days of my youth boating, swimming, and fishing is now gone. A lot of farmland and plenty of houses were damaged, some beyond repair. Thankfully, people were safe.

Senator Harkin shows up this week and had this to say:

“I saw a lot of farmland damage, a lot of houses downstream and I looked at the lake — the former lake,” he said. “Basically, it’s a catastrophic event for those people. It’s not just the homeowners on the lake because it affects the whole county because of the (property) tax base.”

Only a politician or other tax feeder would be so concerned about the loss of precious taxes. I’m sure it’s of great comfort to John Q. Flooded who lost his house that he is not alone. Many others are suffering too. Not because they lost any property or life, but because they will no longer get benefits paid for by the taxes levied against his now flooded home.

Unsurprisingly Senator Harkin’s solution to the problem is to get you taxpayers in Alabama and elsewhere to pay for rebuilding this dam in Iowa. He’s busy figuring out a way to get FEMA to help rebuild. As much as I would like to see the lake restored for my family and friends affected, I can’t see how you or me (now that I live in California) should be forced to foot the bill. Of course Harkin’s motivations are clear: get taxpayers to pay so that the tax base is restored, which will generate more tax “revenue,” which can be used to fund more projects that will generate more taxes, which in turn, could be used to fund additional projects, which will generate more taxes which will…Well if Sen. Harkin ever read LRC, he’d understand that the parasite eventually kills the host.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.