The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says there's "one last chance" for farm bill reform. But it may be a more of a fat chance, given who will be around the table as conferees and the willingess of House and Senate leaders to do the business of the subsidy lobby:

We didn't really need to be reminded, but the U.S. Senate has shown once again that money often stands in the way of sensible progress in Washington.

After a six-week impasse, the Senate passed a $286 billion farm bill that makes only minor changes to the bloated agricultural subsidy system that rewards rich farmers for being farmers. . .

. . .next month House and Senate conferees will have another chance to at least put stricter limits on subsidies for farmers who don't need a taxpayer bailout to make a living.

Until then, if you're a wealthy farmer in America, it's a wonderful life.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer condemns the Senate's sell-out of reform while praising Sherrod Brown's courage in pursing reform.

What's wrong with the Senate bill? For starters, it sustains the crop subsidies that made sense during the New Deal but are impossible to justify with farm income at record levels. It also keeps those subsidies flowing to the wealthiest farmers and fails to impose a reasonable cap on this taxpayer-supported aid. It creates a new relief program for farmers and ranchers who choose to operate in areas where weather disasters are frequent and predictable. At the same time, it protects subsidies to private crop insurance companies.

And the Cincinnati Post unloads on Another Fat Farm Bill:

Senators left Washington to adjourn for the year bearing a gift for every U.S. consumer. Unfortunately, it was a lump of coal: the Farm Bill.

Congress had an opportunity to wean large commercial farming operations from taxpayer subsidies, and treat agricultural entities as businesses, rather than recipients of corporate welfare. It didn't.