But it seems that things are getting even worse. The Republican farm bill recently came up for a vote in the House -- and it was soundly defeated on a 195 to 234 vote. This was amazing to me, because the bill punished the poor by cutting food stamps by $20 billion and then rewarded the rich factory farms by putting that money into more crop insurance for them. Normally, this would be a dream bill for the GOP -- to take from the poor and give to the rich. But it got defeated, and its defeat was because too many Republicans voted against it.
Those Republicans voting against it weren't in favor of restoring any food stamp money. In fact, they wanted to cut even more. The bill wasn't mean enough for the House teabaggers. There is currently a growing split among Republicans in the House -- a war between the right-wingers and the far-right-wingers. And they can't seem to even pass symbolic Republican-written bills (that would probably die in the Senate anyway).
Speaker Boehner tried to shift the blame on to the Democrats (most of whom voted against that bad farm bill), but that's silly. The Democrats were never going to help Republicans pass a bill containing $20 billion in food stamp cuts, and it's ridiculous for anyone to think they would. The bill was defeated because Speaker Boehner is too weak to keep his own GOP caucus together long enough to pass a GOP bill. The ultra-right-wingers just don't listen to him anymore.
The Republicans still have a majority in the House -- but it's an impotent majority, unable to even agree among themselves. And it is completely incapable of passing any legislation. They have progressed from joke status to buffoon status. Isn't it time to dump these jerks in 2014, so the Congress can get back to the task of passing legislation to create jobs and get the economy back on track? That certainly won't be done with a House GOP majority.