Published: May 30, 2008 03:51 pm            

Land Minds: Making of the 2007 farm ‘sausage’

Originally published in the May 30, 2008, print edition.

German-Prussian politician Otto von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.”

With the recent completion of the 2007 farm bill, that saying took on greater significance.

Early on in the development of the bill, the Bush administration had declared that a veto was in order. As the House and Senate continued their work, it became clear that each chamber would have enough votes to declare a presidential veto a moot point.

The House and Senate held up their end of the bargain, and resoundingly passed the bill out of their chambers onto the president.

President Bush felt the farm bill failed to implement meaningful reform to farm programs while increasing taxpayer spending. Even though he knew a veto override was inevitable, he stuck to his guns and did as he promised — he vetoed the farm bill. Or did he?

It was discovered that the version vetoed by President Bush was actually 34 pages shorter than the version that had been passed by both chambers of Congress. So what did Bush actually veto?

I believe it would be hard to find a legislator who can truthfully say they know exactly everything that they cast a vote for or against. This recent clerical error further proves my point.

Sure the farm bill is some 2,000 pages long, so I don’t believe too many people can honestly say that they have read the entire piece of legislation.

I’m sure President Bush did not read the entire bill, and maybe he had “his people” collectively read the entire document. So one has to ask, how can you miss 34 pages out of a document? Well, you can’t read what’s not there.

Apparently the missing Trade Title wasn’t missed by Bush’s minions.

As soon as the farm bill, officially known as the “Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008,” was ultimately passed the support and opposition started flowing in. Like it or not, this farm bill is here to stay for another five years, at a total cost of $289 billion.

What I find interesting is that in this “farm bill” a decreasing amount of the spending is going to “farm” programs. In fact, 73.5 percent of this bill’s total allotment will be spent on food and nutrition programs.

I think I’d like to take a gander at how sausages are made; it might be a lot easier to stomach.

        

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