Beating Up On The Farm Bill
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Policy | Pork-Barrel Politics — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The Economist does the Lord's work--assuming, of course, that from time to time, the Lord decides to go off and shoot fish in a barrel:
IF YOU measure the success of a pressure group by its ability to cram lousy policy through Congress, you might imagine that Big Oil or Wall Street would top the league: they are the lobbies most berated on the campaign trail. You would be wrong. If there were any doubt, the past few days should have confirmed that America's farmers are the capital's handout kings.
Consider their latest masterpiece, the 2007 farm bill that Congress this week delivered, several months late, to George Bush. Congress and the farmers have conspired to make an already unjust agricultural policy--a system that has subsidised the "farming" activities of such paupers as David Letterman and David Rockefeller--even worse. Through a complicated and overlapping system of government-sponsored insurance, counter-cyclical assistance, disaster aid and legacy payments tied to nothing, the five-year, $307 billion bill lavishes cash on wealthy farm households, the main restriction on collecting it being a means test that applies to couples making more than $1.5m a year. And even that can be avoided by employing a reasonably competent accountant.
IF YOU measure the success of a pressure group by its ability to cram lousy policy through Congress, you might imagine that Big Oil or Wall Street would top the league: they are the lobbies most berated on the campaign trail. You would be wrong. If there were any doubt, the past few days should have confirmed that America's farmers are the capital's handout kings.
Consider their latest masterpiece, the 2007 farm bill that Congress this week delivered, several months late, to George Bush. Congress and the farmers have conspired to make an already unjust agricultural policy--a system that has subsidised the "farming" activities of such paupers as David Letterman and David Rockefeller--even worse. Through a complicated and overlapping system of government-sponsored insurance, counter-cyclical assistance, disaster aid and legacy payments tied to nothing, the five-year, $307 billion bill lavishes cash on wealthy farm households, the main restriction on collecting it being a means test that applies to couples making more than $1.5m a year. And even that can be avoided by employing a reasonably competent accountant.
Read it all. Almost as shocking as the fact that this monstrosity got passed is the fact that Republicans--desperately in need of showing that they have recovered their brand as the fiscally responsible party--decided to vote for the farm bill in depressingly large numbers.
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Beating Up On The Farm Bill 9 Comments (0 topical, 9 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
If not, you need to trim it and give a URL link (for those interested, it's at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121141471637712559.html). I happen to have an online WSJ subscription, so I don't know if it's restricted or not. But that's really irrelevant...it shouldn't be copied verbatim
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
Simple Question for November-2008.
How did your House Rep or Senator vote for this pork bill?
Mine:
House - Granger - NO
Senate - Cornyn - NO & Hutchinson - YES
Unfortunately she (KBH) is not up for re-election this year.
My Rep. Jim Moran - "Hell Yeah! We're gonna' earmakr the shite out of this one!"
Here's another question. GOP President George W. Bush did the right thing and vetoed this monstrosity. DO you believe a Democratic President would defy his own party's majority in COngress to do likewise?
At a rate of 6,000 earmarks per spending bill, Speaker Pelosi is selling America's future to the special intrest groups.
GOP President George W. Bush did the right thing and vetoed this monstrosity. DO you believe a Democratic President would defy his own party's majority in COngress to do likewise?
Bush never bucked the Congress on earmark-laden, pork-laden bills, as long as the GOP was controlling Congress. He suddenly "saw the light" when the Democrats took over Congress. Had the GOP kept control of Congress in 2006, Bush would never have vetoed this bill or any other bill.
McCain, on the other hand, has been a consistent opponent of pork and earmarks, regardless of who was in charge in the Congress, GOP or Democrat. And he opposed this farm bill.
For this, McCain never seems to get any credit. I'm always the one on these conservative blogs who has to remind those "loyal Republicans" that when it comes to fiscal responsibility, McCain is among the best; and when the GOP ran Congress, Bush was among the worst (not a single veto).
That McCain gets no credit for it, proves that when push comes to shove, fiscal responsibility just isn't at the top of the priority list for the Republican rank-and-file. The Gang of 14 or some other arcana is.
You being a big Barack Obama fan and all...
And so did Barack Obama. Who said of the farm bill:
"I applaud the Senate’s passage today of the Farm Bill, which will provide America's hard-working farmers and ranchers with more support and more predictability. The bill places greater resources into renewable energy and conservation. And, during this time of rising food prices, the Farm Bill provides an additional $10 billion for critical nutrition programs..."
-NRO
At a rate of 6,000 earmarks per spending bill, Speaker Pelosi is selling America's future to the special intrest groups.
Here's the roll call of the unfortunately named Fiscal Integrity Task Force on the farm bill. McCotter and Brady are in charge of this charade. This is no joke, 11-9 in favor of the farm bill:
SUPPORTED THE BLOATED FARM BILL LAST WEEK
Rep. Kevin Brady
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter
Rep. Rob Bishop
Rep. Jo Bonner
Rep. Charles Boustany
Rep. Henry Brown
Rep. Jack Kingston
Rep. Michael McCaul
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave
Rep. Denny Rehberg
Rep. John Sullivan
OPPOSED THE BLOATED FARM BILL LAST WEEK
Rep. Michele Bachmann
Rep. Gresham Barrett
Rep. John Culberson
Rep. Jeff Flake
Rep. Virginia Foxx
Rep. Jeff Miller
Rep. Devin Nunes
Rep. Tom Price
Rep. Chris Shays
...in 2008.
I get the sense that too many GOP legislators are too corrupted to ever really vote for limited government and fiscal sanity again. I fear that too many of our officeholders are unable to break the addiction to pork.
In that case, it might be best to have some of them lose, so we can find, nominate and elect true conservatives in their place, starting in 2010.
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
Click.
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.
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Change You Can't Believe In (from the Wall Street Journal)
May 22, 2008
President Bush vetoed the $300 billion farm bill yesterday, and a bipartisan throng in the House promptly voted to override. The Senate is expected to follow shortly. Every one of these Congressional worthies purports to be an advocate of "change."
Yet you couldn't write a piece of legislation that more thoroughly represents the Beltway status quo than this one. In every way imaginable, and even a few more, it repeats and compounds the spendthrift errors of previous farm bills.
[snipped]
It was supposed to be our House.
http://www.Thirty-Thousand.org