Republicans abandon Bush on food, energy

WASHINGTON (AP) ‘ Congress responded speedily to voters’ angst over rising grocery prices and $4-a-gallon gasoline Thursday, bucking President Bush’s veto threats with lopsided votes to boost food stamps and farm subsidies ‘ after ordering Bush to quit pouring oil into the nation’s emergency reserves.

Republicans, worried about steep losses in the fall elections, abandoned Bush on the votes.

“If you’re running for office this year, obviously you want to demonstrate that you can put up a record of accomplishment that’s based upon working with both sides of the political aisle,” said GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. “I think people, even those who don’t necessarily represent farm states, also want to do something about energy and they want to do something about the high cost of food.”

Despite Bush’s strong opposition, 35 of the Senate’s 49 Republicans voted Thursday with Democrats to pass and send to the White House a $290 billion farm bill that will increase food aid for the needy as well as subsidies for farmers enjoying record high incomes. A hundred Republicans in the House had voted the same way Wednesday, a day after the party’s third straight loss of a long-help GOP seat to Democrats in special elections.

The three House districts, located in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi, include rural farm areas.

“I think the fact that they’ve lost three House seats in a row, people are thinking, ‘Gee, do I really want to stand with the president? It looks like this ship’s going down,'” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Both the House and Senate also overwhelmingly voted to temporarily halt daily shipments of 70,000 barrels of oil to the nation’s emergency reserve held in underground salt domes along the Gulf coast.