John Boehner and his fellow House Republicans were just dealt a hefty blow today. At the same time, it was a small victory for those who struggle to put enough food on their tables. The highly controversial farm bill has failed in the House with a vote of 195 votes for it, and 234 votes against it. This came as a surprise to many who were pushing heavily for its passage, include Steve King (R) of Iowa.
In a quote in The Hill, Representative King said of the surprising defeat:
I was surprised by about half of them. I thought they would have taken more of a 10,000 foot view. We are ending direct payments in this bill, we are starting to reveres(sic) the obscene growth of the food stamp program.
While the rejection by many Democrats was due to increased subsidies and huge cuts in the SNAP program ($20.5 billion in cuts), the ‘nays’ on the Republican side were not predicted. Those Republicans who were not comfortable adding a ‘yea’ to the vote tally objected because they felt it didn’t cut enough.? Others cited the two amendments to the bill, one to end production limits on dairy farmers, and the second one that would add a work requirement for SNAP recipients.
So what happens now? There is a bit more time left on the current budget, but not much because it expires in September. Representative King paints a dismal, but probably accurate picture when he suggests that lawmakers on either side may well not budge, saying that it’s going to be a staring contest. There’s no predicting what’s going to happen, really. Predicting who will blink first is like betting on which cow is going to poop in which square in cow patty bingo. It’s literally a crap shoot.
