Club for Growth Condemns Farm Bill Vote

Washington – With the passage of the Farm Bill today in the House of Representatives, 218 Democrats and 100 Republicans told the American people they care more about shoveling money at the special interests than saving taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

“Congress should be embarrassed when such a large majority votes to throw taxpayer dollars at millionaire farmers, increase subsidy payments at a time of record-high crop prices; and give special tax breaks to horse racers,” said Club for Growth President. “If members of Congress are trying to figure out why their approval ratings are in the gutter, they should open up the mammoth Farm Bill and start reading.”

Every member of Congress who voted for the Farm Bill voted to support such egregious measures as:

• Subsidies to millionaire farmers without a hard, meaningful cap on a farmer’s qualifying income
• The elimination of key limits on annual commodity payments
• Spending gimmicks that disguise over $10 billion in spending increases
• An increase in subsidy rates despite sky-high crop prices and record farm incomes
• Direct payments for crops that are not based on a farmer’s income, crop prices, or any standard of need
• The creation of a new, permanent disaster aid program, creating incentives to grow the wrong crops on bad land in bad weather
• Tax breaks for special interests like race horse owners and timber companies

“The Republican Party should be especially embarrassed,” Mr. Toomey continued. “When more than half the party votes for the Farm Bill, it becomes awfully hard to convince the American people that Republicans care about fiscal responsibility.”