Let’s go into the time machine back to June 2008:
Congress passed a $300 billion farm bill over President Bush’s veto for a second time Wednesday, a step made necessary by a clerical error when the original bill passed.
Congress overrode President Bush’s second veto of a $300 billion farm bill.
The Senate voted 80-14 to approve the measure over Bush’s objections, following a 317-109 vote in the House of Representatives. Both votes were well above the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, which Bush delivered Wednesday morning.
Twelve Republican senators voted against the bill, but the remainder supported it. In the House, the Republicans split 99-96, with the slight majority voting in favor of overriding their president’s veto.
Flash forward to this year, and 25 Republicans in the Senate were opposed to the Farm Bill, but party members still helped pass it with 66 votes. However, the House appears incapable of passing any version of the bill. They are about to try to pass a bill this morning that is opposed by “532 farm groups led by the American Farm Bureau and National Farmers Union, as well as Heritage Action and the Club for Growth.” It will probably be opposed by every Democrat because it doesn’t include any nutritional assistance whatsoever. In other words, it has no provision for food stamps or the SNAP program.
One other interesting thing about the House bill is that it would break an awkward coalition that has been used for decades to pass agriculture bills:
As a sweetener to conservatives, the bill would repeal the underlying 1938 and 1949 farm laws and replace it with the 2013 version.
Doing this would remove the threat of the farm bill expiring every five years, a deadline that has allowed Congress to expand farm subsidies in the past…
…Farm groups are opposed to splitting the bill because for four decades, they have relied on a coalition with urban liberals who support expanded food stamp access to pass farm bills.
I generally agree with conservatives who are skeptical about agricultural subsidies, although I am not opposed to them in principle. But the GOP is trying to crack a long-standing compact that has allowed farmers to support nutrition assistance and urban pols to support agricultural subsidies. This is a real threat to nutrition assistance, so that is why I oppose it.
