Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton, the Republican nominee for Senate, is putting some mind-blowing chutzpah on the TV:
I'm sorry, "President Obama hijacked the farm bill, turned it into a food stamp bill"? Can I get a record scratch sound effect here, please? Unless Cotton is suggesting that Barack Obama
traveled in time back to the 1930s, when nutrition assistance and farm subsidies were first linked, I don't think he had anything to do with turning the farm bill into a food stamp bill. Every damn farm bill for decades has included nutrition programs, up to and including the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (see, we call it the farm bill, but food was actually in the name). In fact, food stamp eligibility was expanded under George W. Bush in 2002. And food stamp use is
starting to decline as the economy improves.
This is just a blatant falsehood from Cotton. Either he's getting desperate as he underperforms expectations in his Senate race, and figuring that some people won't hear that this ad is based on a lie, or this is just the kind of shameless liar he is under normal, non-desperate circumstances. Either way, this ad provides a great reason to oppose Cotton, and it doesn't have a thing to do with food stamps or farm bills.