Oink! Oink! Congress goes hog wild with farm bill

There will be unmelted snowballs in Hades before this Congress agrees to cut out the pork in the farm bill headed for a vote

At an estimated cost of at least $285 billion over 10 years, this will be the most expensive and regressive farm bill ever. Given how Congress uses budget gimmicks these days to hide the real costs of many of the bills it approves, that $285 billion figure is almost certainly too low.

Bush proposed limiting such subsidies to people making less than $200,000, then offered to compromise with a $500,000 annual cap. Congress refused.

This bill is a sweet deal for agribusiness conglomerates, alternative energy profiteers, and wealthy absentee farmers who’ve never sat on a John Deere tractor, but it will leave a bitter taste for taxpayers for years to come.