Anyone who's ever driven past a big hog farm won't forget the smell. But that's nothing compared to the stench of greed, spinelessness and foolishness emanating from the pork-packed farm bill Congress just approved.

The vote, if the numbers hold, would be veto-proof.

President Bush should veto the bill anyway, but not before getting on the bully pulpit to browbeat shameless lawmakers. The more the American people learn about this horrible measure, the more pressure they'll bring on Congress not to override the veto.

Utah congressmen Chris Cannon and Jim Matheson, to their credit, voted against the bill, as did Sen. Bob Bennett. We are glad to see a majority of Utah's delegation take a responsible stand. On the other hand, we are pained by the "yes" votes of Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Rob Bishop.

The five-year, $307 billion measure includes no-strings handouts to millionaire mega-farmers at a time when many crops are selling at record prices and farm revenues are up a whopping 51 percent over their 10-year average.

Even the liberal New York Times has called the bill "disgraceful."

Far from aiding struggling family farms, most of the farm handouts will go the very wealthy. These subsidies are a Depression-era holdover that have long since been rendered obsolete. Yet the government keeps handing out the money.

The greed of the farm lobby is underlined by the way a sensible reform was gutted. President Bush had proposed to limit direct cash payments to farmers making less than $200,000 a year. Congress rejected that idea and put the income cap at $750,000 and $1.5 million for a married couple.

That's just one example of the bill's many insults to both fiscal prudence and fairness.

The bill recklessly adds more foolishness to the already unwise practice of farm handouts, which are a major obstacle to better, fairer trade policies. Other nations strongly object to these policies, which hurt their own local producers who can't compete with heavily subsidized U.S. farm products.

Adding insult to injury, the bill makes the already outrageous federal sugar program even worse. You already pay double the global average cost for sugar, thanks to federal import quotas.

Hold onto your hat. The new bill, writes the National Review, "adds a sugar buyback program, under which the federal government must purchase any 'excess' sugar from domestic producers at 23 cents per pound -- and then immediately resell it to ethanol producers at 2 cents per pound, with the taxpayer stuck paying the 21-cent-per-pound difference."

We'd say that is anything but a sweet deal.

Though Bush threatened to veto the bill, a majority of Republicans in Congress cravenly abandoned him: 100 Republicans in the House, 35 in the Senate. In the House, even GOP Whip Roy Blunt voted for it. In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell voted for it. The senator from Kentucky even included one of the bill's most egregious features, a tax break for race horse owners.

Republicans stampeded in favor of this bill because they are frightened by GOP losses in three consecutive special elections for the House. They are plainly running scared when they can't muster the courage to oppose the most irresponsible bill to come out of Congress in decades.

But neither party should be trying to buy votes with a bill that is so clearly bad for the country. If you wonder about that point, just look at your grocery bill.

Utah's Cannon hit the nail on the head: "The farm bill has evolved into a big government behemoth that we cannot afford."

While the bill has its good points -- including help for the poor in a time of rising food prices and a modest reduction (not nearly enough) in subsidies for corn-based ethanol -- they are not enough to overcome the bill's horrendous defects.