Rep. Tom Cotton (R), who is challenging Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas this November, sent out a press release yesterday celebrating the speedy approval of disaster relief funds for Arkansas farmers impacted by crop losses after
recent flooding. Good news, right?
Who could ever be against that?
"I appreciate Secretary Vilsack's quick approval of Governor Beebe's disaster declaration request for the 23 impacted counties," Cotton said in a joint press release with the Arkansas congressional delegation. "I have heard from many farmers about the impact of the recent flooding, and I look forward to working with our friends in Arkansas to make sure farmers are able to access the emergency funds they need.
As it turns out, Rep. Tom Cotton was against that. As the Pryor campaign pointed out, the program granting these recovery funds was part of the 2014 Farm Bill, and Rep. Tom Cotton was against the Farm Bill. He was the only member of the Arkansas Republican delegation to vote against it, and is
proud of it.
Cotton, the only one of Arkansas's five GOP legislators to vote against it, replied that Democrats had called it a farm bill to "mislead the voters" and should have called it the "food stamp bill."
Cotton is a budget extremist; he voted against the 2013 Farm Bill as well, and he's been facing campaign-trail criticism in Arkansas all year for those votes. So yes, for him to celebrate how the Farm Bill is now helping farmers seems a bit much.