"blue dog" Democrats and more increases in govt spending (given to the wealthy)

From the editorialists of the WSJ, the second half on the recent farm bill (covering the politics)-- with updates inserted by me, from the AP's Mary Clare Jalonick (hat tip: C-J)...

If you wonder why urban Democrats would vote for this rural giveaway, the answer is they have been bought off with roughly $10 billion in extra funding for food stamps and nutrition welfare programs. Someone should tell them that their constituents might not need this cash if the farm bill didn't help keep food prices high. And let's not forget the Blue Dog Democrats who are supposed to be spending hawks. The farm bill busts the budget caps by at least $10 billion, but the Blue Dogs get $5.9 billion in handouts for their districts. So they will put their fiscal sermonizing on hold and vote "aye."

More "fiscal conservatism" from the Blue Dogs-- taking your money (or financing the hand-out with debt) to give a lot of money to rich people. Great!

Mr. Bush is promising a veto, to his credit, but the White House expects even many Republicans to vote to override. The House GOP swears it has learned its spending lesson after 2006. Yet House Minority Leader John Boehner, who opposes the bill himself, isn't rallying GOP opposition. Perhaps there are too many Republicans who crave the handouts too.

The headline of the C-J version of Jalonick's piece said that the House had a veto-proof majority with 100 GOP votes. We'll see about the Senate. But when Bush says something is "fiscally irresponsible", it must be really bad!

Meanwhile, John McCain says "I would veto that bill" and will vote against it in the Senate. Strangely silent is Barack Obama. A major theme of his campaign is to battle corporate special interests in Washington on behalf of the "middle class." Here is one of his first tests, and it'll be fascinating to see if he sides with the well-funded commodity lobby over consumers and taxpayers.

He will continue to remain silent since it's more of the same-- special interests trump the common people, even for Barack.