Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:40 pm
After Republicans tried to push beyond the $20 billion in food stamp cuts already in the Farm Bill, Democrats pulled their support, and John Boehner suffered another humiliating defeat.
The Farm Bill was defeated 195-234, and House Republican leadership immediately started blaming Democrats for the loss. Democrats pulled their support for the bill after the House passed an amendment by Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL) that would have added work requirements to the food stamp program. The end result was that only 24 Democrats voted for the bill, and 62 Republicans voted against. After the vote Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “It’s silly. It’s sad. It’s juvenile. It’s unprofessional. It’s amateur hour.” Later Pelosi added that Democrats couldn’t support the bill because it would have, “taken food out of the mouths of babies.”
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Boehner and Cantor still could have passed the legislation on their own, but the Republican caucus had broken into factions. The reality is that John Boehner can’t pass anything major without Nancy Pelosi. House Republicans are too divided, and mired in infighting to pass anything beyond vague platitudes of ideology that everyone knows will never survive the Senate.
John Boehner needs somebody who can actually deliver votes in the House, and that person is Nancy Pelosi. When the radical tea party element of the GOP caucus tried to push for even more than $20 billion in food stamp cuts that they already had, Pelosi and the Democrats walked. What Boehner and Cantor won’t tell you is that the bill failed because of their weak leadership.
Democrats were never going to support a bill that cut $20 billion from the food stamp program. Without the support of at least 66 Democrats, the bill was not going to pass. House Republicans lost Democratic votes when they foolishly tried to attach a work requirement on to the SNAP program, but it wouldn’t have mattered if enough Republicans would have supported the bill.
Fair is fair. If Republicans want to blame Democrats for the defeat, Democrats have the right to take credit for a victory for the poor.
John Boehner’s inability to function without Nancy Pelosi’s ability to deliver Democratic votes proves once and for all that the wrong person is acting as Speaker. If America wants the House to function like it is supposed to again, they need to hand the Speaker’s gavel back to Nancy Pelosi, because the Boehner/Cantor/McCarthy/Ryan GOP leadership is a joke.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
