No member of the house should have voted for this spending boondoggle. And yet as Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards outlines many so-called “fiscal conservatives” lined up to support the pork-laden boondoggle.
It’s a good thing that the farm bill failed to pass the House, but it is disturbing that about three-quarters of Republicans voted in favor of this massive spending bill. The House billwould have spent 47 percent more over 10 years than the 2008 farm bill ($940 billion vs. $640 billion). Most of the spending is for food stamps, so GOP farm bill supporters would have essentially ratified the recent huge spending increases on this welfare program.
I watched some of the farm bill action on the House floor, and it was sad to see so many supposed fiscal conservatives speaking in favor of it. Looking on the official websites of these farm subsidy supporters, they all claim to be deeply worried about overspending and deficits. The cognitive dissonance must be jarring to them.
