The Club For Growth, the deep-pocketed conservative advocacy group, is celebrating the death of the GOP’s farm bill that failed on the House floor Thursday, which they opposed on the basis that the legislation didn’t cut programs deeply enough.
The organization bragged about its role in scuttling the legislation in an email to reporters Friday, flaunting its “powerful” influence. Republican leaders pushed for the bill’s passage and were embarrased by the 195-234 vote.
The Club for Growth clipped a YouTube video of NBC News senior political editor Mark Murray saying “there are powerful outside Republican, conservative groups like Club For Growth, Heritage Action — and when they oppose something like that on the farm legislation, they can actually take Republican votes with them. There were 62 Republican no votes. Those outside groups played a very big role.”
In a follow-up email, the Club’s spokesman said 35 House members took their position on all 10 amendments to the farm bill.
“Now that the House has defeated the Farm Bill, we should finally discuss real reform,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in his initial statement after the vote. “The time for reform is now. We need to put farm subsidies on a path to elimination and we need to devolve food stamps to the state level where they belong. With $17 trillion in debt, the American taxpayers don’t have time to wait.”
Democrats opposed the bill’s cuts to food and nutrition programs. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) derided Republicans as amateurs after the vote.
