The Senate has just passed a Farm Bill that
slashes food stamps more than $8 billion over the next 10 years. As Laura reported, that means nearly two million people will see a cut in benefits, will see a cut in how much food they can live on. The vote was 68-32, with the following Democrats voting against the cuts: Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bob Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
Here's what else is in the controversial bill, courtesy David Dayen.
The politicians patting themselves on the back for repealing subsidies to farmers have found a surreptitious way to deposit these savings right back in the pocket of agribusiness. That’s because the farm bill will expand subsidies for crop insurance. which looks like a private-sector program but which actually hands over virtually the same amount of taxpayer money to farmers, mostly wealthy ones, as the old direct payment program. What’s more, the shift from direct payments to crop insurance ensures that those handouts can be distributed in a hidden, more politically palatable way, making it more difficult to ever dislodge them.
As David also points out, when members of Congress are talking about "farmers," they're talking mostly about giant agribusiness, large and wealthy corporations still getting subsidies, now in the form of more generous crop insurance. Meanwhile, lawmakers
tout the bill as deficit reduction, as if deficit reduction matters at a time when food banks are
running dangerously low on food to help the millions whose food stamp benefits are already too stingy.