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The Denver Post warns, "Milk, food prices could rise if Congress fails to act." Congress is working on a farm bill, which, among other things, will set limits on how high or low milk prices can be in different regions of the country. Politicians from both parties like to meddle in agriculture. When the Heritage Foundation told Republicans not to pass any farm bill, "conservative" politicians banned Heritage from their weekly meetings. But why should politicians be involved in agriculture? Why should they set food prices, any more than they set the price of books or staplers? The market decides...

The federal government has paid as much as $35.9 million in farm subsidies to dead people, a watchdog agency claims. The subsidies were part of the $20 billion a year effort to support farmers with crop insurance, conservation efforts and disaster assistance administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2008 to 2012. Two of the department’s agencies do “not have procedures in place consistent with federal internal control standards to prevent potentially improper subsidies on behalf of deceased individuals,” the Government Accountability Office said in a 25-page report released Monday.

House GOP leaders took a big gamble Thursday in bringing a farm bill without food stamps to the floor, and it paid off — just barely. The House passed the bill 216-208, inching across a 213-vote threshold without a single Democrat supporting the measure.

How should Congress deal with the farm bill? Drop food stamps from the bill, deal with that separately Impose more cuts to food stamps, but keep that in the farm bill Food stamps are fine -- it's the farm subsidies that need to be slashed Cut both food stamps and farm subsidies The debt is $17 trillion -- cut farm subsidies, food stamps and just keep going

This farm-bill debacle really is turning into quite the — er, interesting? — case study of American politics. On Wednesday evening, House Republicans did indeed come up with some legislation that stripped food stamps from the farm bill, the intention being to split them up into two more easily scrutable issues and end the usual omnibus political momentum their pairing produces. Their new legislation is purely concerned with, ahem, what I will very generously refer to as “agricultural policy,” and the CBO just came out with their new scoring on the split bill, via The Hill: The CBO said that...

Congress is gearing up to pass a major farm bill for the first time since 2008, and this year’s bill threatens to be much larger than the last one. Farm subsidies make political sense for many members of Congress. But they make no practical sense because they damage the economy, hurt the environment, and are grossly unfair. So in the hopes that the practical will prevail over the political, here are 10 reasons why both the House and Senate should go back to the drawing board with their legislation: 1.) The farm bill is far too costly. George W. Bush...

Could the time actually be ripe to end the perennial pairing of the federal food stamp program together with U.S. agricultural “policy” (hem, hem) into a single “farm bill,” and thereby break up the perverse urban-rural synergy that usually ensures the bill’s passage and deliberately obfuscates its many moving parts? On Monday night, National Review reported that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor got pretty frank about his perturbation with GOP chairmen over the unexpected and epic fail of the House farm-bill proposal in June; nevertheless, Roll Call reports today, House leadership has been moving forward with their plan to whip-count...

In a tense, closed-door meeting today at the Capitol, House majority leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) scolded several Republican committee chairmen for voting against the farm bill that failed to pass the House last month. According to several sources, Cantor told the chairmen it was “unacceptable” for them to not vote together on final passage, especially since the leadership supported their amendments to the agricultural package. (snip) Near the end, Cantor coolly reminded them that the leadership is much more likely to usher their bills to the floor if they stick with him on votes.

That pesky ol’ “farm bill” — i.e., the gigantic bill that includes both food stamp programs and agriculture subsidies and therefore brings together an urban-rural coalition of votes that ensures minimum transparency and maximum momentum — is still a lingering action item on Congress’s agenda, after the House version’s tremendous crash-and-burn last month. Some unruly conservatives had the audacity to object to a mere three percent annual cut in the $80 billion/year food stamp program, while some precocious Democrats at the same time thought that that and additional work requirements were far too draconian. (Trillion dollar deficits, people. Trillion. Dollar....

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) faces a crucial choice in the coming days: what to do with the $939 billion farm bill. [WATCH VIDEO] The bill failed on the House floor last month in a 195 to 234 vote, spurring conservative calls for Boehner to split the legislation into farm spending and food stamps before it is brought back to the floor.  Behind the scenes, the fight over the bill is pitting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) against Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.). While Cantor wants to divide the bill and cut more spending, Lucas wants to keep it...

After the stunning defeat of the food stamp and farm bill last month on the House floor, multiple reports have surfaced that Republican leaders are considering separating food stamps from farm programs. Now, thanks to unscripted, public comments by Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), we know talk of separating the bill is nothing more than a procedural gimmick intended to perpetuate the status quo. Asked about the so-called farm bill, Rep. Roe acknowledged he “thought the farm bill was about farming; it turns out its really not.” He explained “for the first time, we’re going to separate the farm bill” from...

For decades, country and city interests had come together every few years to pass the farm bill, a measure that provided billions of dollars in subsidies to farmers and businesses in rural areas and food stamp money for urbanites. No more. The recent defeat of this year’s farm bill—traditionally a sturdy, albeit lonely pillar of cooperation in Washington—highlighted how the country-city political marriage became yet another victim of partisan politics in polarizing times. … Here’s how the breakdown of a longtime coalition happened: Newly emboldened conservative groups pressured rural-state Republicans—many representing agricultural districts—with radio ad campaigns to oppose the five-year...

WASHINGTON – The farm bill collapsed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, as divisions over food stamp cuts and the shape of future agriculture subsidies continue to divide Congress along party lines and within GOP ranks. The House rejected the bill by a vote of 195 to 234, with 62 Republicans opposing the bill and only 24 Democrats voting in favor of it. The latest setback for the $939 billion agriculture bill came a week after the Senate had already passed its $955 billion version. Republicans blamed Democrats for the bill’s outcome, while others blamed the Republican leadership...

Dairy farmers expressed frustration this week with Congress’ failure to pass a farm bill, saying the uncertainty made it hard to do business and some could go under without changes to the federal milk program. Farmers also worried that if a current nine-month extension of the 2008 farm bill expires with no action, a 64-year-old law will kick in, sending milk prices spiraling. While that might provide short-term profits, they say, it’d hurt them in the long run because no one wants to buy milk at $6 a gallon. …

The unimaginable happened for the second time this year on Thursday. Fiscal conservatives held their ground against expanding the size and scope of government. The Farm Bill failed passage in the House due to a coalition of conservative votes who thought there was too much spending, and ironically big-spending Democrats who felt there was too little. With Boehner’s announcement two weeks ago that he would be voting in favor of the bill, the likelihood of its passage seemed almost imminent. Even withstanding those odds, thousands of Americans rallied with phone calls, emails and outreach to keep the pressure on those...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says his chamber won’t pass an extension of farm policy this year and is pressuring the House to figure out how to pass a farm bill. The House rejected its version of a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill last week, with 62 Republicans voting no after Speaker John Boehner urged support. The Senate passed its farm bill earlier this month with support from two-thirds of the chamber. Reid on Monday urged Boehner take up the Senate farm bill before current policy expires Sept. 30. … Both bills expand farm subsidies while saving money overall and making...

In 2008, a mere 14 senators and 109 House members voted against overriding President George W. Bush’s veto of the farm bill. Sure, food-stamp spending — which compromises about 80 percent of the spending authorized by the bill — had significantly increased in recent years. But traditionally, the farm bill, which also subsidizes the agriculture industry, had been one area where Republicans, particularly in affected geographical areas, tended to forgo free-market advocacy. This time was different. “No one who even pretends to call themselves a conservative could vote for this bill,” says Heritage Foundation president and former senator Jim DeMint....

In a surprise defeat for GOP leaders, the House on Thursday rejected a massive farm bill. ~~snip~~ What the farm bill defeat means for other big issues: ~~snip~~ This unexpected farm bill defeat portends potentially bad things as the House proceeds to other major issues later this year. Very soon, the House may have to tackle immigration reform -- to say nothing of the effort come fall to try to keep the government open and raise the debt ceiling. Failure to pass the farm bill, by far the simplest of any of these issues, is not good for the House...

On her MSNBC show this morning, Melissa Harris-Perry vilified John Boehner as a "super-villian," a "bad guy" and "pitiful." His sin? Failing to pass the farm bill. So who is MH-P's idea of a good Speaker? Why, Nancy Pelosi, of course. Harris-Perry praised Pelosi as "one of the most effective leaders in the House's history." So effective that, as a result of her disastrous leadership, Pelosi's Dem House caucus went down to crushing electoral defeat in 2010. View the video here.

In an epic and unexpected turn of events on Thursday, the House version of the farm bill failed to gain enough traction to make it into conference with the Senate, but the fact that the farm bill lives on in its current form — wedded to food stamps and chock-full of more agribusiness pork than you can shake a stick at — is a deplorable testament to the staying power of farm subsidies and the lobbyists who love them. Once you start handing out subsidies, the relevant special interests are reliably reluctant to let them go, and most unfortunately, the...