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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (253240)	5/7/2002 10:19:39 AM
From: Bald Eagle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

No, it wasn't. I asked if you had an opinion on corporate welfare in general. You replied with a criticism of both political parties and said nothing to actually answer the question.

To: jlallen who wrote (253240)	5/7/2002 10:21:54 AM
From: DMaA	Respond to of 769667

WSJ on the Farm Bill. They're talking about me in the last paragraph. Down on the Farm Bill President Bush says he'll sign one of the porkiest farm bills in history, but it's worth noting the way many Congressional Republicans are holding their noses at the prospect. At least some of the GOP leadership has reasserted its small-government principles by quietly repudiating last week's House-Senate $173 billion farm spending spree. In the Senate, the two ranking Republicans on the Agriculture Committee -- Indiana's Richard Lugar and North Carolina's Jesse Helms -- have refused to endorse the conference report. This isn't surprising given that Mr. Lugar was one of the chief architects of the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act, historic reform meant to wean farmers off subsidies. The new farm bill, with runaway entitlements for big agribusiness, carts his efforts off to the manure pile. More notable is the condemnation in the House. The final bill passed 280-141, but a majority of the Republican leadership deserted Ag Chairman Larry Combest. They include GOP Whip Tom DeLay, Majority Leader Dick Armey, Republican Policy Chairman Christopher Cox and Rules Chairman David Dreier, as well as leadership notables Rob Portman and Tom Davis. Speaker Dennis Hastert didn't vote, but it is known that he too opposed the bill. The one significant vote in favor of the farm-state pig-out was GOP Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma; we hope his colleagues ask why. These votes were meant to send a message to the public, and we can only hope the President heard it too. The Administration seems singlemindedly focused on shoveling enough money at farm states to win back Republican control of the Senate. But in the process Mr. Bush is often ignoring his natural philosophical supporters in the House; he did it last year on education and so far this year on campaign finance and now on the farm bill. Someone might want to tell Karl Rove that a Senate victory will be pyrrhic if President Bush manages to alienate his GOP base, voter turnout falls as a result and Republicans lose the House in the process. Updated May 7, 2002 12:29 a.m. EDT