A farm bill. Pure pork. Corporations do the nation's farming now. The small farmer is pretty much extinct. So all the crop insurance, and price supports, and marketing orders, and sugar tariffs are pure welfare for corporations. That's half the money in the farm bill. Pork. The other half is food stamps. Corporate farmers love food stamps, it creates demand for their farm products. The taker class loves food stamps, it's more free stuff for them.
Congress still cannot deal with tax reform, defense spending, debt ceiling hikes, NSA snooping, TSA groping, the deficit, or immigration. All are locked in partisan squabbling.
But they can get together, and be bi partisan, when it comes to passing more pork that the country cannot afford.
By rights, we ought to cancel all handouts to corporate farmers, in fact to any kind of farmer. I don't get a handout, and neither should they. And we can reduce food stamps by half. And we should never put handouts to corporate farmers and handouts to takers into the same bill.
The country would be better served if partisan fighting had stalled this farm bill. Better to do nothing than to pour tax payer's money down a drain.