Friday, June 01, 2012

Conservative groups target farm bill

Conservative groups have made it official — they hate the Senate farm bill and will push Tea Party fiscal hawks in Congress to defeat it. Heritage Action and Club for Growth on Tuesday told The Hill they will “key vote” the Senate farm bill that is coming up for passage in early June, punishing members on their annual scorecards for voting in favor of the bill. “We’re against it. We haven’t key voted it yet, but we will eventually. I suspect that fiscally conservative resistance will be high, probably even higher than the highway bill,” said Club for Growth vice president Andrew Roth. Heritage Action said it will key vote the Senate farm bill out of opposition to the new spending in the legislation on crop insurance, meant to cover farmers’ small losses. The group also believes the bill does not cut enough from food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). “Conservatives should not be distracted by the end of direct payments in the Senate farm bill. Not only does the bill funnel millions to specialty crops while creating a new and potentially costly subsidy in shallow loss insurance, it also fails to make necessary structural reforms to the SNAP program,” Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham said in an emailed statement. Club for Growth and Heritage Action have played central roles in mobilizing conservatives in recent months, exerting particular influence with the large Tea Party caucus...more

It's about time.

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