Ahh. The Senate's Farm Plan.

The Senate, only marginally more likable than the House or Supreme Court to me, has passed a new and improved Farm Bill. I say improved all the while sarcasm is dripping from my brain. It does have a few good points, however. It eliminates the so-called Direct Payment Program that gave big agri-businesses funding no matter whether they did poorly or very well. Instead they replaced it with a very handsome crop insurance program that will do pretty much the same. On the other hand, they did manage to cut back on food stamps $4.5 billion over ten years, a welcome piece of trickery to help those in need. More sarcasm. They also managed to cut back on environmental protections to protect land potentially in danger of erosion, although somebody put part of that back in an amendment. Sarcasm continues. So the total bill comes to $969 billion over ten years, a $23 billion reduction from last year. Now if you think this is bad, just remember that the House of Representatives gets a shot at cutting more out of it, to make it more affordable. I wonder where they'll find the waste to cut out of that bill? Would you like to bet $10,000 that it isn't more likely to come out of food stamps than out of the insurance for giant agri-businesses? My guess is that somehow the House will figure out how to put the screws to small farmers and food stamp recipients but protect the big boys. I think that's eligible to be called more sarcasm. It's not that I think our Senators and Congressmen don't care about people. They do care. But they care about the folks who don't really need their help and not those who do.