Yeah, I’m surprised as you are, but Heritage staffer Daren Bakst puts the wood to House Republicans for passing a farm bill that, in both style and substance, violates just about everything the “new Republicans” are supposed to stand for. The Republican leadership brought the new bill, a mere 600 pages* long, to the House floor a mere 10 hours after it had been introduced. They didn’t allow any amendments, and they told people that it contained the same provisions relating to farm subsidies as the earlier bill, which was a lie. The new provisions boost the cost of the program past the “generous” limits endorsed by the Obama Administration and make the new, unnecessary subsidies (as opposed to the old ones) permanent, instead of set to expire in five years. Daren doesn’t say so, but the only redeeming feature of the bill is that the Senate will surely not agree to it.
*This isn’t quite as bad as it sounds, though bad enough. Congressional bills are frequently printed on paperback book sized pages in large type, so that “giant” bills often aren’t really so huge. In addition, bills frequently contain a great deal of text relating to tiny special interest programs (Alaska natives, Hawaiian natives, etc.) that, while also unnecessary, don’t cost very much.
