General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Former Clinton USDA Official: “Our political system is basically evil versus spineless now" [View all]karynnj
(59,507 posts)He is neither spineless or bought by anyone. He IS acting as a representative of his state's dairy farmers and small farmers.
I remember when Kerry was working on the climate change bill and 14 coal state Senators wrote a letter that essentially demanded their states not bear the brunt of the cost necessitated by any bill. Many of these Senators - Feingold and Sherrod Brown for instance - were among the most dependable liberal/progressive Senators. In this case, they were defending their rust belt states -- and the solution in Kerry's effort was the subsidies to those hit hardest.
Just as I would NOT say that the Senators who voted for the Farm bill wanted SNAP cut, I did not say that Feingold and Brown did not care about global warming - even before Brown worked with Kerry on insuring this issue was handled. In both cases, they are looking at what the bill gives them and the possibility that defeating it would lead to a better bill. Here, that seemed completely unlikely.
Years ago, someone spoke of legislators facing bills where they almost always would prefer to vote "yes, but" or "no, but". However, they are required to vote yes or no - and explain the buts in their statement - which many here would argue do not matter - only the vote does.