Parliament of Windbags

Let me add to Sallie's observations on the House farm bill battle.

I watched the action on CSPAN over the pro-reform Kind/Flake amendment and was really struck by the arrogance of the anti-reform members. They repeatedly said essentially: "How dare members like Flake criticize the hard work of the Agriculture Committee — he's not on the committee, he's not a farmer, and so what does he know about farming!"

The anti-reform members also trotted out the "downtrodden small farmer" rhetoric, despite the frequent reminders from the reformers that the vast share of subsidies go to the largest and wealthiest farms.

And for any voters who still think that the GOP is the party of spending restraint, note that on the vote for the Kind/Flake amendment, 32% of Democrats favored reform while only 23% of Republicans did.