Farm Bill becomes a partisan pork party

Today, the House passed the 2007 Farm Bill — with a vote of 231 – 191, along partisan lines. [Corrected] The fly in the ointment was a last minute bill by Rep.Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) to pay for greatly expanded nutrition and food stamp programs–dear to the hearts of urban Democrats–through tax hikes on foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries.

Republicans cried “foul” and pointed to the millions of jobs that would be lost and foreign investments that wouldn’t be made if the tax hike went through. Here’s a list that Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) pointed to about likely results of the tax hike to fund some of the programs.

Undeterred, House leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, listed all the groups that were getting their piece of the $286 billion porker bill — commodity farmers, fruit and vegetable farmers, sugar and dairy producers, nutrition programs, food stamps, biofuels — “there’s something for everyone,” they said. Except the consumers and taxpayers, we say.