Earlier today, I wrote a diary on the House's rejection of Jim McGovern's amendment to restore the $20.5 billion cuts from SNAP by making equivalent cuts to wasteful farm subsidy programs, shifting cuts to social welfare onto corporate welfare. That amendment failed 188 to 234, largely on a party line vote.
To make matters worse, the House passed an amendment by Steve Southerland (FL-02) to turn SNAP into a workfare program. Southerland's amendment would allow states to require most adults who receive or apply for SNAP — including parents with children as young as 1 year old and many people with disabilities — to work or participate in a training program for at least 20 hours a week or else have their entire family’s SNAP benefits cut off. The amendment would also allow states to use the funds taken away from such families for whatever they wish, and, of course, no money would go to actually creating job opportunities for these individuals. Tax cuts for the rich? Sure. Tax breaks for oil, coal, or natural gas? Go ahead. Class warfare, par excellence. It passed on a party line vote of 227 to 198. Only one Democrat voted for it: Jim Cooper (TN-05). Six Republicans rejected the cruelty of this bill: Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08), Chris Gibson (NY-19), Richard Hanna (NY-22), Pete King (NY-02), Pat Meehan (PA-07), and Dave Joyce (OH-14).
The final Farm Bill came to a vote and failed 195 to 234. 171 Republicans and 24 Democrats voted for the bill. 62 Republicans and 172 Democrats voted against it. Earlier today, Nancy Pelosi predicted that the number of Democrats who'd vote for the final bill would be in the 20s or 30s. She was correct. The Republican leadershi blames Democrats for not picking up their slack and providing votes to make up for the loss of the votes of the wingnuts on the right because of course they would.
Which 24 Democrats voted for the bill, $20.5 billion cuts to SNAP, the cruel Southerland amendment, and all? The usual suspects plus a few farm state representatives
Ron Barber (AZ-02)
John Barrow (GA-12)
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Bruce Braley (IA-01)
Julia Brownley (CA-26)
Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Bill Enyart (IL-12)
Sam Farr (CA-20)
John Garamendi (CA-03)
Joe Garcia (FL-26)
Dave Loebsack (IA-02)
Mike McIntyre (NC-07)
Jerry McNerney (CA-09)
Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
Bill Owens (NY-21)
Gary Peters (MI-14)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Nick Rahall (WV-03)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Krysten Sinema (AZ-09)
Filemon Vela (TX-34)
Tim Walz (MN-01)
If you are interested to see who the 62 Republican defectors were, just click the link above for the roll call. You'll see a lot of the usual Tea Party suspects there--the Broun's and Bachmann's of the world.
It'll be interesting to see what happens next. I'd suspect that, for something to pass, it would have to pass on the strength of Democratic votes--just like every important bill has so far this year--because Boehner's an ineffective leader with a caucus that refuses to govern.