Congress Throws Farmers Under The Bus

One reason why the Election Year cycle is so dangerous is that the politicians become mesmerized by it. They are essentially paralyzed for an entire year. By the time the country is actually ready to vote, in November, it's literally a different country than it was at the start of the year. And in their hypnotic state, the politicians can't tell.

This summer's drought came on fast and fierce, but the politicians have yet to notice:

A catastrophic drought has impelled the federal government to designate more than half the nation’s counties as disaster areas. Yet even in the face of this historic disaster, Congress has proven itself incapable of passing legislation, large or small, to help the farmers affected by the drought.

The big failure is Congress’ inability to pass a new farm bill. The Senate did manage to rally the votes to get a comprehensive trillion-dollar five-year bill through its chamber, but House Republicans refused to go along because the bill includes too much funding for food stamps.

Then, on Thursday, the last day before shutting down shop for August, the House passed a much more limited bill that would revive four disaster aid programs that expired last September. Much smaller in scope than the Senate’s bill, the House’s package includes aid to livestock owners who can no longer make a profit on their animals because the cost of feeding them has risen too high.

The Senate, however, is unlikely to take up the House’s bill because it pays its $383 million price tag by gutting $650 million from two environmental conservation programs. The point is moot, anyway, because the Senate has also closed down for the rest of August. The drought will continue, but Washington can’t be bothered.