(Alas) There’s No BBQ Clause in the Constitution

Surprisingly, President Obama’s first direct attack on Paul Ryan since the congressman’s selection as Mitt Romney VP nominee doesn’t involve the threat of grandma being pushed off a cliff. Instead, it involves the latest farm bill, which has too many subsidies and food‐​stamp increases for House Republicans’ tastes (good for them).


Now, I’m no expert in agriculture policy — for more on farm bills and related disasters, I recommend my colleague Sallie James’s work — but one provision in the disputed legislation caught my eye: Apparently the federal government plans to buy over $150 million of meat and fish. Sounds like a great cookout, but what gives the government the power to do that? Where exactly is the Constitution’s BBQ Clause?


If only President Obama could take a page from another embattled Democratic president facing a drought‐​stricken nation: In 1887, Grover Cleveland vetoed a bill appropriating $10,000 for seeds for suffering Texas farmers, saying, “I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution.” (For more on that and other similar examples, see this report from 10 years ago this month.)


What a long way we’ve come.