The Senate on Friday approved a $286 billion farm bill with an election-year expansion of subsidies for growers and food stamps for the poor.The bill, passed on a 79-14 vote, expands subsidies for wheat, barley, oat, soybeans and several other crops and creates new grants for vegetable and fruit growers.It also increases loan rates for sugar producers, extends dairy programs and provides more dollars for renewable energy and conservation programs to protect environmentally sensitive farmland over the next five years.President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation, saying it costs too much and should instead be cutting subsidies at a time of record-high crop prices. He also has threatened to veto a House version passed in July.

Unlike the Senate, the House did not approve the bill by a veto-proof majority, or two-thirds of the chamber. That vote was 231-191.

White House opposition and criticism from fiscal conservatives have so far had little impact on the politically popular bill.

SFGate

This is one of the most unmitigated wastes in our government, paying people to grow things they’ve been growing for over a hundred years. This is a quarter of a trillion dollars. Imagine how quick the National Debt could be paid down if they took all of the farm subsidies and put it on paying the debt.

11 Republicans voted against this:

Bennett (R-UT)
Burr (R-NC)
Collins (R-ME)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lugar (R-IN)
Sununu (R-NH)
Voinovich (R-OH)

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today he plans to declare a fiscal emergency next month in the face of a $14 billion budget shortfall, clearing the way for his administration and lawmakers to make immediate mid-year spending cuts in state services.

The governor, during a speech about health care in Long Beach, said the fiscal pain would be spread “across the board” but that passage of a long-awaited, health-care reform plan in the meantime would ease impacts on the poor who depend on Medi-Cal, government-subsidized health insurance.

“We are going to call this January for a fiscal emergency when the legislators come back” Schwarzenegger said. “We will make that announcement next week some time with the legislative leaders. We will address that.”

Voters gave California’s governor the power to declare a fiscal emergency when they passed Proposition 58 three years ago. Today’s announcement marks the first time Schwarzenegger has exercised the authority.

Contra Costa Times

I must remark how quite enjoyable it is to watch California politics from the other side of the country. The icing on the cake in this latest bout of mayhem is that the guy declaring the disaster is the same guy that helped create it.

After many false prophecies, Dean circa 2008 has finally arrived. He is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Not because he will inevitably blow himself up in Iowa. But because, like Dean, his nomination would represent an act of suicide by his party. Like Dean, Huckabee is an under-vetted former governor who is manifestly unprepared to be president of the United States. Like Dean, he is rising toward the top of polls in a crowded field based on his appeal to a particular niche of his party. As with Dean, his vulnerabilities in a general election are so screamingly obvious that it’s hard to believe that primary voters, once they focus seriously on their choice, will nominate him.

The GOP’s social conservatism inarguably has been an enormous benefit to the party throughout the past 30 years, winning over conservative Democrats and lower-income voters who otherwise might not find the Republican limited-government message appealing. That said, nominating a Southern Baptist pastor running on his religiosity would be rather overdoing it. Social conservatism has to be part of the Republican message, but it can’t be the message in its entirety.

Townhall

This is exactly what I have been saying for a few months now. Social conservatism cannot be the only Republican message. We need a candidate that will appeal to both social and fiscal/small government conservatives. Huckabee has so many flaws. He will alienate the fiscal conservative independents, libertarians, and conservative Democrats that sometimes cross the aisle when the Democrat candidate is too extreme. The man is not electable.

On a similar note, Huckabee leads in South Carolina now:

CNN POLL: SOUTH CAROLINA

Huckabee 24%
Thompson 17%
Giuliani 16%
Romney 16%
McCain 13%
Paul 11%