McCain eyes voting ‘no’ on the farm bill

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is leaning against backing a massive farm bill that would rewrite agriculture policy over the next five years, a choice that puts him in between his fiscal conservative base and rural states important in the general election.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has long sided with his conservative base on the issue, calling a 2002 farm bill “an appalling breach of our federal spending responsibility.” But he has remained out of the debate this Congress as the fight over the bill has intensified, including missing Senate votes last year over a $286 billion bill.

{mosads}The economic downturn, skyrocketing food prices and ballooning energy costs now add to the pressure McCain faces as he weighs whether to back a bill being drafted by a House-Senate conference committee, which plans to add an additional $10 billion to the bill over 10 years.

The bill is being pushed heavily by a range of farming interests and lawmakers from states that benefit from subsidies, including pivotal general-election states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

Anti-tax groups, however, have strongly criticized the most recent version of the bill, calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars.

If McCain opposes the final bill, Democrats are eager to use his position to characterize the senator as out of touch with rural states hurt by the economic downturn and in line with a president who called the bill “bloated” at a news conference on Tuesday.

But if McCain supports it, he is certain to anger some of the fiscal conservatives he has won over by vowing to eliminate congressional earmarks and pledging his support for President Bush’s tax policies.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said that McCain is at risk politically because the legislation has generated the most attention of any farm bill in decades because of the diversity of constituents it would benefit, including churches that feed the hungry, conservationists and a vast array of farmers.

“I think a lot of farmers will be unhappy [if McCain opposes the bill], and I don’t mean corporate farmers in East Texas as much as I mean family farmers in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania and places he needs to carry,” Brown said. “It will contribute to the [argument that] John McCain is as out of touch as George Bush about people’s pain.”

“Food and agriculture policy is critically important to rural states,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a farm bill conferee. “Somebody that would oppose that legislation would be seriously hurt in a state like mine.”

McCain’s Republican supporters reject that notion, saying that the Arizonan has a principled stand against the farm subsidies.  

“John has been very strong in speaking his convictions,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who voted for the Senate’s version. “I think people understand that and know that when they go to the polls.”

Sen. Norm Coleman (R), who faces a tough reelection and badly wants a farm bill for his state of Minnesota, downplayed McCain’s possible opposition.

“I think John McCain’s straight talk in the end is what people are going to respect,” Coleman said.

McCain’s office would not say whether he opposes the bill, but a spokesperson said that the senator has concerns with it in its present form.

“Based off press reports on what is contained in the farm conference bill, Sen. McCain is concerned the bill contains too much corporate pork and not enough to incentivize the free market to lower food prices,” the spokesperson said.

McCain has had a frosty relationship with the agriculture industry. He has been a longtime critic of legislation forcing refineries to blend gasoline with corn-based ethanol, and has repeatedly voted against mandates, including in 2005 for a measure to require 8 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended with U.S. gasoline by 2012.

In his two campaigns for president, McCain has not campaigned heavily in Iowa. But in this election cycle, he won the endorsement of The Des Moines Register and finished in fouth place in the state’s January caucuses.  

“A lot of people think he would be problematic from an agricultural standpoint,” said Brent Gattis, an agriculture lobbyist and a former aide on the House Agriculture Committee. “There are a lot of people worried about a McCain administration.”

Another agriculture lobbyist, who requested  anonymity, didn’t think McCain would be hurt by a farm bill vote because Congress would likely extend current law, which aids a number of commodities.

The agriculture industry has given McCain $689,000 this cycle and does not rank in the top 20 sectors that have donated to his campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. It has given similar amounts to his Democratic opponents, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

Democrats think they are in a stronger position with the agriculture industry. Last November, when Democrats were campaigning heavily before January’s Iowa caucuses, Obama and Clinton returned from the campaign trail to vote to end debate on the farm bill. The bill fell five votes shy of the 60 needed to cut off debate, and McCain missed that roll call.

The bill later passed in December with all three of the presidential candidates missing the vote.

McCain has recognized some raw feelings might exist between him and farmers. In the past, he has pointed to a range of issues he supports beyond the farm bill that would help farmers, including tax cuts, access to broadband and his environmental platform.

Still, the farm bill could be ammunition for Democrats.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he wants to see the final bill before taking a position.

But he said of McCain, “It will be a troubling vote in many rural areas if he opposes it.”

On the other side, the anti-tax group Club for Growth called the pending farm bill “an insult to taxpayers” and Bush said Tuesday that the bill would make American families “who are already paying more in the checkout line … pay more in subsidies for wealthy farmers.”

In his swing state of Florida, Republican Sen. Mel Martinez doesn’t think it will have any impact on McCain.

“I don’t think it’s a burning issue in Florida,” Martinez said.