McCaskill: Republican candidates failing Missouri farmers

In the latest news release, Claire McCaskill's Senate campaign spanks her Republican competitors for not supporting the farm bill. The release is printed below.

Missouri’s farmers, ranchers and rural families are running out of time to salvage a year’s yields as 97 percent of the state continues to suffer through extreme drought conditions, but John Brunner, Todd Akin and Sarah Steelman still refuse to voice their support for the Farm Bill, which strengthens Missouri’s top industry, reduces the deficit and protects farm families when unexpected crop loss and drought occurs.

Although the Senate passed a strong, bipartisan bill over the obstructionist tactics of Senators affiliated with the Tea Party last month, House leaders have refused to stand up to their extreme, anti-farm members and bring the bill to the Floor, increasing the likelihood that this crucial legislation won’t become law before current Farm Bill programs expire on September 30.

“You’d be hard pressed to find three candidates for statewide office in Missouri who are more careless about the terrifying reality facing our farm families than John Brunner, Todd Akin and Sarah Steelman,” said Erik Dorey, McCaskill for Missouri spokesman. “It's time for Brunner, Akin and Steelman to admit that by refusing to endorse common sense and compromise in order to pass the Farm Bill, they are putting Missouri’s top industry and farm families at a severe disadvantage, as well as opposing commonsense legislation that reduces the debt. There's really no excuse for this.”

An article today in POLITICO detailed the unprecedented levels by which the extreme members of this Congress have ground proceedings to a halt, allowing ideology to prevent the passage of the Farm Bill. This brand of knee-jerk obstructionism has been the hallmark of Tea Party politicians that Brunner, Akin and Steelman have each repeatedly cited as mentors and endorsers.

In the midst of a severe drought, the House Republican leaders are proposing to walk away from farm states and decades of precedent by not calling up the new five-year plan before the current law expires Sept. 30.

Whatever its flaws, the bill promises $35 billion in 10-year savings from exactly the type of mandatory spending that Congress promised to tackle in last summer’s debt accord. But rather than disrupt its political messaging, the GOP would put it all at risk by delaying action until after the November elections. [Politico, 7/23/12]

Steelman and Akin both said they would have opposed the Farm Bill the day after it was passed, and KMBC’s Mike Mahoney reported that Steelman said, “no real conservative” would have supported the bill.

Brunner has repeatedly refused to support the legislation or even say how he would have voted on the Senate’s version, instead citing his support for a defeated proposal from his Tea Party mentor that would have stalled the bill in the Senate.