As John McCain and Barack Obama both claim to be reformers who will cut government waste.  Who put his money vote where his mouth is?

This year both Republicans and Democrats joined hands (oh, sweet bi-partisanship!) to screw the American public with a bloated farm bill. Bush vetoed it, but was overridden.

About the bill, The WSJ noted:

Yet you couldn’t write a piece of legislation that more thoroughly represents the Beltway status quo than this one. In every way imaginable, and even a few more, it repeats and compounds the spendthrift errors of previous farm bills.

Since the last farm bill in 2002, the price of cotton is up 105%, soybeans 164%, corn 169% and wheat 256%. Yet when Mr. Bush proposed the genuine change of limiting farm welfare to those earning less than $200,000 a year, he was laughed out of town. The bill purports to limit subsidies to those earning a mere $750,000, but loopholes and spousal qualifications make it closer to $2.5 million. As Barack Obama likes to say, it’s time Washington worked for “the middle class,” which apparently includes millionaire corn and sugar farmers.

Another purported change is the arrival of “fiscal discipline,” in Nancy Pelosi’s favorite phrase from the 2006 campaign. Yet it turns out this farm extravaganza may bust federal budget targets even more than we thought a week ago. That’s because the new price supports – the guaranteed floor payments farmers receive for their crops – have been raised to match this year’s record prices.

Mad yet? Keep reading.

The USDA reports that if crop prices fall from these highs to their norm over the next five years, farm payments will surge. For example, if corn prices return to $3.25 a bushel from today’s $6, farmers would get $10 billion a year in support payments. If bean prices fall to their norm, they’d get $4 billion. Thus, if farm prices stay high, consumers face higher grocery bills and farmers get rich. If farm prices fall, taxpayers kick in the difference and farmers still get rich.

Sugar producers also make out like Beltway bandits, receiving the difference between the world price of sugar, which is now $12 per pound, and the guaranteed price of about $21 per pound. That’s a roughly 75% subsidy for already wealthy cane growers and a nice payoff for the $3 million they contribute to House candidates each year.

Any wonder why food prices are going up?

All of this is a status quo that both political parties can believe in. More than a few liberal Democrats are privately embarrassed by this corporate welfare spectacle. But they’ve been mollified by Speaker Pelosi, who spent the last week assuring her left that the bill also includes another $10.4 billion for food stamps and nutrition programs.

This entitlement expansion comes only days after the Congressional Budget Office reported that paying the bills for existing entitlements could require tax rates to climb to 80% in the future. Yes we can!

So the American taxpayer gets screwed coming and going. Now, guess who voted for this piece of crap?

Sen. Barack Obama voted for the bill.

Sen. John McCain voted against it.