A Win For Common Sense : Farm Bill's Defeat

Farm Bill's Surprise Defeat A Win For Common Sense

Posted 06/21/2013 06:33 PM ET

Legislation: Congress on Friday rejected the nearly $1 trillion farm bill by a vote of 234 to 195. So what? you ask. For one, it had never happened. For another, it shows rank-and-file politicians are getting nervous.

That the measure went down in flames is a good thing, even if the reasons each party had for opposing it were radically different.

Even calling it a "farm" bill was a misnomer. It was really a bloated welfare bill that would have kept subsidies in place for wealthy farmers while supersizing spending on food stamps.

The bill's $940 billion price tag over 10 years was shocking enough. That amounted to a 50% increase over the last farm bill, passed in 2008 during the depths of a recession and vetoed by President Bush as too big.

Equally stunning was the fact that nearly 80% of the money was to be spent for food stamps, not farming.

In short, this so-called farm bill would have turned vast numbers of American urban dwellers into semi-permanent welfare recipients.

For perspective, the farm bill would have spent $80 billion a year on food stamps, nearly twice what we spent just five years ago.

Furious Democrats wanted to spend even more.

As for the farm subsidies, it's a cruel misconception that they go to support struggling family farmers — the folks that Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp warble about at their Farm Aid concerts.

In fact, subsidies go overwhelmingly to the rich. As the Environmental Working Group recently noted, the biggest 10% of farm businesses get three-quarters of all subsidies. Talk about welfare for the rich.

Even family farmers aren't exactly the struggling poor. As Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute recently reported, average household income in the U.S. in 2011 was $69,677; the average farm household's income was $87,289 — 25% greater.

The media called the bill's loss a "surprise" and "unexpected." Well, not really. Besides those Democrats who wanted to shovel more toward welfare, 62 Republicans bucked House Speaker John Boehner to oppose the bill because of the massive boost in welfare spending, the money paid some farmers to grow nothing and the subsidies that focused on the richest farmers.

If congressional leaders can't muster enough votes for a pork-filled goody bag like the farm bill, imagine how hard it'll be on tougher votes — such as immigration legislation, the looming debt ceiling or perhaps the repeal of ObamaCare — where taxpayers will really be watching how they vote.

Eventually, a new farm bill will be passed, probably with many of the same flaws, only tweaked a bit. Too bad, but at least this vote shows politicians of both parties are starting to look over their shoulders before voting on such nonsense.

At bare minimum, food stamps don't belong in a farm bill; they should be separated and voted on for what they truly are — welfare.

Meantime, those who like smaller government and want reform of our antiquated farm policies should be cheered by this surprising outcome.

Maybe it's a harbinger of things to come.