Reader responds to Tom Vilsack guest column

To the editor:

What a nice story from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the Nov. 3 Gazette ('Administration invests in biofuels for future growth”) describing how his department and the administration were doing such a masterful job of promoting biofuels. He told about investing $300 million in cutting edge research, investing $750 million in loan guarantees, $210 million to strengthen the rural economy and committing $500 million to drop-in aviation and marine biofuels.

Whether he calls all of these taxpayer expenditures - investments, grants or commitments - they are all really subsidies to enterprises who are unable to make a profit on their own, enterprises that actually compete with profitable taxpaying companies.

It is no wonder that reasonable citizens are fed up with needless bloated government deficit spending.

Dick Roggensack

Waukon