President Obama has set forth his agenda for the near term. One of the three goals that he set was to get the farm bill passed. While this may sound like a rather lame goal, it is really less even than that. The farm bill, by the way, has virtually nothing contentious to do with farming; the House and Senate have already agreed about virtually everything on that subject. The issue which is being disputed in the farm bill at the moment is the level of funding for food stamps. For historical reasons, the food stamp program is funded in the Department of Agriculture, so it becomes part of the farm bill.
Food stamp expenditures by the federal government have exploded under Obama. There is a good reason that Newt Gingrich called Obama "the food stamp president" during the 2012 campaign. (Gingrich may have been ultimately revealed as untrustworthy and self-important during that campaign, but he still knows how to turn a phrase.) Interestingly, both the Senate version of the bill and the House version cut funding for the program. Right now, the funding difference between the two versions comes to about 2% of the total. That means that there is no doubt that some sort of compromise funding level would have been found.
Now, however, Obama has made the farm bill one third of his agenda. When the ultimate compromise is reached on the farm bill, we will, no doubt, hear about the great bipartisan compromise achieved by the president.
There are so many important issues facing America at the moment. It is truly sad that our president is setting his sights on resolving "problems" that don't really exist.
Food stamp expenditures by the federal government have exploded under Obama. There is a good reason that Newt Gingrich called Obama "the food stamp president" during the 2012 campaign. (Gingrich may have been ultimately revealed as untrustworthy and self-important during that campaign, but he still knows how to turn a phrase.) Interestingly, both the Senate version of the bill and the House version cut funding for the program. Right now, the funding difference between the two versions comes to about 2% of the total. That means that there is no doubt that some sort of compromise funding level would have been found.
Now, however, Obama has made the farm bill one third of his agenda. When the ultimate compromise is reached on the farm bill, we will, no doubt, hear about the great bipartisan compromise achieved by the president.
There are so many important issues facing America at the moment. It is truly sad that our president is setting his sights on resolving "problems" that don't really exist.
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