Instead of Mooooooooo. Say Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Like a phoenix made of pork, the Farm Bill has risen from the ashes. And for opponents of farm subsidies and wasteful government spending, that’s bad news.
The measure, which had languished for two years in Congress, passed in the House this week. The Senate is expected to vote on the Farm Bill next week.
At least one member of the chamber, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has said he’ll vote against it. But most observers expect the bill will sail through the Senate, and President Barack Obama has said he’ll sign it if it reaches his desk in its current form. In short, it appears the Farm Bill is a done deal.
The most notable change in this year’s Farm Bill is the elimination of direct farm subsidies, the multi-billion-dollar handout to mostly wealthy farmers. That’s a good thing. But in its place, Congress has substituted taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance. And the bill taxpayers may foot for crop insurance subsidies—at least $89 billion over ten years—may outweigh what taxpayers would have contributed in direct subsidies. There are other many other costly bells and whistles to be found in the bill.
In short, what Congress has billed as a cost-cutting reform measure is nothing of the sort.
Recognizing this, the Washington Post editorial board, for example, called on President Obama to “stand up for his declared principles by vetoing it.”
But others are willing to move on. New York Times editors held their nose in endorsing the bill, captioning their support with the less-than-optimistic headline, “The Farm Bill Could Have Been Worse.”
Like the Farm Bill itself, the House vote in favor of the bill is ugly, no matter how one looks at it.
For every two members of the House who voted against the bill, there were three that supported it. While more than 100 Democrats voted against the bill, just 63 Republicans did the same.
Beyond the mere fact that the Farm Bill passed while laden with so much pork, it’s that last figure that has many conservative and libertarian groups up in arms.
For example, a Citizens Against Government Waste press release on the Farm Bill’s passage was titled, “It’s a Dung Deal.”
A Taxpayers for Common Sense statement says the Farm Bill “wastes taxpayer dollars on new special interest policies for everything from sheep to sushi rice.”
Not surprisingly, the reactions of conservative and libertarian Farm Bill experts I spoke to by email this week ranged from disgusted to aghast.
“The bill is a disaster for taxpayers and has the potential to be even more expensive and wasteful than the abysmal 2008 Farm Bill that it is replacing,” says Tom Schatz, president of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, CAGW’s lobbying arm. “While the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the conference agreement will save a minuscule $16.6 billion over 10 years (which is not likely to be achieved), that amount pales in comparison to the myriad problems that permeate the bill.”
“By keeping an unnecessary catfish inspection program and refusing to reform crop insurance or eliminate the unnecessary sugar program,” said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, “members of both parties and both chambers missed a golden opportunity to fundamentally shift agriculture policy from government-centric to one that embraces the free market and common sense.”
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