I’m currently watching C-Span. They seem to be talking about using the farm bill to somehow promote rural internet access. Or maybe they’re talking about the Farm Bill in general, and it was just Representative McIntyre (spelling?) promoting some clause of it. Then there was some woman, I think she was a Republican, who made the absolutely pitiful statement that the Farm Bill was the most important work she’s done in Congress so far, but she opposes it now because it includes a tax increase. Bob Etheridge, D-North Carolina, is talking in a thick mumbleaboutallthehandoutsinvolvedinthebillasifthesewerelaudatory, and seems to be advocating for the bill to be passed. (He ran out of his time and was cut off from the speaker. That guy didn’t exactly ooze charisma.)
Now we’ve got Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) who seems to be echoing the sentiment how hard he worked and how important the bill is, only for him to be “duped” and tax increases snuck in by democrats somehow. His time ran out, and the speaker tried to cut him off, but he spoke over her with loud complaints of Democrat Tax and Spending. The hypocrisy in this accusation was palpable. He wanted to spend the money too, but he wanted to borrow and spend instead.
Rep. Charles Boustany (R-Louisiana) is repeating the litany of complaints about duplicitous Democrat leadership. He has a pretty voice, it’s nice to listen to, and his appearance is neat. His words don’t match though, and they aren’t pretty. He’s making open appeals regarding the poverty of Louisiana. It looks like the only reason he opposes this bill now is because some big interest in his state would lose more in taxes than it’d gain in subsidies. I hope this is a false appearance.
There’s some other Republican stooge now who is hammering on Democrat duplicity again,andhehammeredonitasananti-capitalistbillwhichstrengthenedthefederalgovernmentagainstthestates, and yet somehow he supports the bill still. He seems to be criticizing others for putting in poison pills to sink it and then proposing to pass it anyways to punish whoever proposed the poison pill parts of the bill. Ridiculous!
Representative Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) talked about how all the world has an interest in cheap food, appealing to the rest of the chamber to support the bill for the sake of the poor and the children. Iexpectedtheappealtopoverty, I’m not surprised by the internationalist sentiment, but I never thought I’d hear a “save the children” appeal on a piece of blatant corporatist legislature like the farm bill.
Rep Joe Baca (D-California) just said that 11% of the public is going hungry, and 22% of minorities. Where the hell is this man getting his statistics? He makes it sound like there’s a famine. And there we go again, he just threw a “save the children” appeal out there too.
This has been a session of live-blogging C-Span. Is this a good idea, a bad idea, or an ugly idea? It’sinterestingtome.I might do more in the future.
