WASHINGTON — Alone in Missouri, and also among the southern Illinois congressional delegation, Rep. Todd Akin voted against the farm bill on Wednesday.

The Missouri Republican says it was a tough choice, but fiscal considerations demanded it.

The bill amounted to about $300 billion, but only 13 percent went to farmers or agriculture, while 73 percent “is for entitlements and food stamps,” Akin says. “It’s that 73 percent I have trouble with.”

Akin, a former businessman, has always been tight with taxpayers’ money, and he wasn’t about to stop now.

Is he a profile in courage?

“I may be a profile in trying to follow my own conscience and in trying to do what is fiscally responsible,” he says. The vote may be politically disadvantageous, he adds, noting that he got considerable pressure to support the bill from some of his “friends and supporters.”

“That’s what makes it very difficult,” Akin says. “I’ve had a very good relationship with the people in the Farm Bureau in Missouri  and think very highly of them.”