Harkin rankled

Just sliding across my inbox, from the office of Sen. Tom Harkin:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today issued the following comment after President Bush explicitly threatened o veto the farm bill during the swearing in ceremony of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer. Harkin is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and Chair of the conference committee on the farm bill.

“For President Bush to continue to take a hard line and threaten to veto a farm bill is unproductive and against the bipartisan spirit that made this bill a reality and that carried it through the Senate with one of the largest votes in the history of farm bills. This measure is critical for our farming families and rural communities in Iowa and across this country, so I urge the president to back away from this position and instead work with farm bill negotiators to come up with a bill he can sign. The Senate farm bill is a good, strong measure that balances spending with revenues raised by closing tax loopholes and ending tax abuses – not by raising taxes – as the President has suggested.”