Oh, SNAP! House fails to pass GOP farm bill

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Further evidence today that the Tan Man, Weeper of the House John Boehner, is the "Worst. Speaker. Ever." His comical sidekick Eric Cantor is no better.

The GOP drafted farm bill -- which in actuality is about 80% funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps -- failed to pass the Tea-Publican controlled House today, despite the fact that this is a Tea-Publican drafted bill with punitive cuts of $2 billion annually from the food stamps program and it permitted states to impose broad new work requirements on those who receive food stamps to punish those "takers" in the 47 percent.

And why did this happen? Because for many Tea-Publicans the measure was not punitive enough. In their dark hearts, they would like to make it a crime to be a member of the working poor.

Talking Points Memo reports, House GOP Fails To Pass Farm Bill, Welfare Cuts:

The House has rejected a five year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that would have cut $2 billion annually from food stamps and let states impose broad new work requirements on those who receive them.

Those cuts weren’t deep enough for many Republicans who objected to the cost of the nearly $80 billion-a-year program, which has doubled in the past five years. The vote was 234-195 against the bill, with 62 Republicans voting against it.

The bill also suffered from lack of Democratic support necessary for the traditionally bipartisan farm bill to pass. Only 24 Democrats voted in favor of the legislation after many said the food stamp cuts could remove as many as 2 million needy recipients from the rolls. The addition of the optional state work requirements by an amendment just before final passage turned away any remaining Democratic votes the bill’s supporters may have had.

Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said the work requirements, along with another vote that scuttled a proposed dairy overhaul, turned too many lawmakers against the measure.

The last successful Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, coudn't resist: Farm Bill Failure Is 'Amateur Hour':

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed Republicans after the chamber voted down their farm bill on Thursday afternoon, calling it "major amateur hour."

"It's silly. It's sad. It's juvenile. It's unprofessional. It's amateur hour," she told reporters.

She chastized GOP leaders for blaming the bill's failure on a lack of Democratic votes, denying their claims that she had promised 40 votes from her conference.

"Absolutely not," she said.

As Jed Lewison at Daily Kos quipped: "if Republicans want to give Democrats credit for blocking a bill that would make deep cuts to food programs for poor people, Democrats should be eager to accept it. After all, the public is on their side in this battle."

UPDATE: The New York Times has an Interactive Map: Roll Call Vote in the House.

Voting Yes

Ron Barber (AZ-2)

Paul Gosar (AZ-4)

Krysten Sinema (AZ-9)

Voting No

Trent Franks (AZ-8)

Raul Grijalva (AZ-3)

Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-1)

Ed Pastor (AZ-7)

Matt Salmon (AZ-5)

David Schweikert (AZ-6)

Comments

[p2h]

Barber and Sinema voted "yes" (with the Republicans)!

http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2013/06/breaking-news-farm-bill-defeated-234-195-az-dems-split.html

[movingazforward]

Perhaps Rep.Sinema was not aware that percentage of food stamp recipients in Maricopa County increased 107.6% from 2005-2010, putting it in the top five counties in the country, or that 1 in 4 children in Maricopa County live in poverty.

http://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/urbansnapreport_jan2011.pdf

We can mention this to Rep. Sinema at her next "Coffee Club" on July 28th from 11-12.

Lo-Fi Coffee
105 W. Main St.
Mesa 85210

[don]

maybe we need to break out the things that are good in the farm bill and kill the rest and call it something else, this recurring bill is too toxic and a behemoth

[AZ BlueMeanie]

Don, that would be logical and good governance. The farm bill is crafted the way it is to draw votes from urban areas (food stamps) and rural areas (farm subsidies). Amendments to this bill to deny farm subsidies to incomes over $250,000 and to members of Congress were rejected. The punitive food stamp amendments to punish the working poor were adopted, which is what lost Democratic votes -- except for 24 Dems who were clueless on this vote.