How Republicans Justify Cutting Food Stamps While Boosting Farm Subsidies

Republicans have been pressing to roll back the dramatic expansion of food stamps that has taken place over the last five years -- 46 million people are now on the program, up from 26 million in 2007, and the average benefit has increased by more than a third. At the same time, they supported a lot of money for farmers. Jonathan Chait asks a good question:

Being a libertarian myself, and inalterably opposed to farm subsidies, I enjoyed this not-so-subtle tweaking. But it seems worth trying to answer the question, rather than merely marinating in our own moral and logical superiority. Is there a way that we can explain supporting Medicare while cutting Medicaid, Social Security but not welfare checks, farm subsidies but not food stamps? For readers of Jonathan Haidt's amazing book, "The Righteous Mind," the answer should be "yes." It lies in reciprocity. You'll find an extensive discussion of this in my forthcoming book (she mentioned casually), but for now let's concentrate on Haidt.