Good Thursday Morning Fellow Seekers,
Guest Poster Karl Bremer of Stillwater, a marketer and free-lance journalist, considers himself U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s least favorite constituent. He has attempted to ask her questions by phone, email and letter and has never received an answer, including his queries relating to this piece.
Looking at Bachmann’s financial disclosure statement, he found that Bachmann holds a substantial interest and receives income from a Wisconsin farm. Further down the paper trail, Bremer found that the Bachmann family farm received more than $125,000 in federal subsidies between 2001 and 2005. (The farm is very likely still receiving them, although the 2006-2007 records aren’t available online.) Bachmann generally opposes such big government excesses. So, is it hypocritical for her to benefit from them? Here’s Bremer’s report, you decide.
While Rep. Michele Bachmann was voting with one hand against the 2007 farm bill that would extend federal farm subsidies programs through 2012, she has been harvesting federal farm subsidies with the other, and slipping them into her own pocket.
A 949-acre
As a freshman congresswoman, Bachmann has voted against virtually every government assistance program that has come before her, from student financial aid to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Bachmann calls “socialized medicine.” If it looks like a government handout, Bachmann has opposed it.
But when it comes to collecting her own government assistance checks, that’s another story.
Bachmann’s vote against the farm bill July 27 was no surprise. Even as a state senator, Bachmann spoke out against farm subsidies. In 2003, she told the Senate Environment, Agriculture and Economic Development Budget Division that the devastation being seen in parts of
On her 2007 Congressional financial disclosure form, Bachmann lists “Bachmann Farm Family LP,
The Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership comprises 949 acres spread out over 36 parcels in
Paul Bachmann has collected $127,868 in federal farm subsidies since he formed the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership with Michele and possibly others in 2001, according to the Environmental Working Group.
Most, if not all, of the subsidies appear to have been paid on land owned by the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership. Over the past few years, parcels of land have been transferred between “Bachmann Farm Family LP,” Bachman Farm Family,” and members of the Bachmann family. This makes it impossible to tell from the records the exact amount of farm subsidies collected on land owned in part by Rep. Bachmann.
Bachmann declined to answer any questions about the ownership, the subsidies, or even the relationship of Paul Bachmann to her husband, Marcus Bachmann, or to make any comment for this article on the question of whether she was profiting from the kinds of government programs she opposes. But the congressional disclosure forms do confirm that she has benefitted.
Paul Bachmann collected a total of $232,445 in federal farm subsidies from 1995-2005. He ranks 50th among Buffalo County, WI, residents in terms of the total crop subsidies—$52,292—collected from 2003-2005. He collected another $38,197 in dairy program payments during that period and $7,083 more in livestock compensation disaster payments in 2003, for a total of $97,572 from 2003-2005, the most recent years for which data is available.
Michele Bachmann has done nothing illegal by collecting federal farm subsidies. The establishment of a limited partnership for a farming operation no doubt is to reduce her tax liability—i.e., a tax shelter. And it conveniently keeps Michele’s own name out of the farm subsidy database.
Indeed, in a recent local media investigation about urban recipients of farm subsidies, Bachmann’s name wasn’t even mentioned.
But it does raise questions about the sincerity of Bachmann’s belief in smaller government and her opposition to entitlement programs when she partakes in them herself.
Is the Stillwater congresswoman
Or is she just another wealthy “urban farmer” milking the federal system who would, were it not for her anti-government Republican credentials, provoke outrage and indignation among right-wing think tanks and radio jocks?
You be the judge.
[…] Eric Black (well actually, a guest poster on Eric Black’s blog) has some interesting news about the freshman Congresswoman’s farming. While Rep. Michele Bachmann was voting with one hand against the 2007 farm bill that would extend federal farm subsidies programs through 2012, she has been harvesting federal farm subsidies with the other, and slipping them into her own pocket. […]
Ok, let’s get the bias out of the way. I voted for Michelle Bachmann, not because I was a huge fan of hers, but rather because I believed that Patty Wetterling was not qualified to hold the position. (Sadly, I feel we often find ourselves voting for the lesser of two evils.) Mrs. Bachmann has been disappointing at times, and I think she is actually smarter than some of her positions. But let’s face facts, she was elected by the “machine” and probably gets reminded of that on a regular basis.
Frankly, which is more hypocritical? Those members who get the subsidy and vote for it, or someone who gets it and is voting to end it? There are a number of Senators and Congressman who get subsidies (http://tinyurl.com/ypzbdl). These were designed to assist family farmers (which, btw, the farm in Wisconsin does appear to be a family operation that the Bachmann’s participate in) is rife with terrible excessiveness and people who do not have anything to do with farming benefit from in ridiculous fashion. (See this article from July 2006 in The Washington Post http://tinyurl.com/rxok2).
Finally, Mr. Bremer’s paragraph about the use of the Limited partnership is really just a cheap swipe at the Congresswoman. I do not begrudge anyone who attempts to reduce their taxes legally. The fact that the LP keeps her name out of the subsidy roles was likely never a thought in the process, and since the farm is operated by her husband’s brother, aren’t we jumping to a conclusion that Mrs. Bachmann was the one who even set the thing up?
False advertising!!
I thought that _Michele Bachmann_ was your guest poster girl ;-)
As I recall another apostle of rugged individualism, Steve Sviggum, does okay at the agriculture trough. Though, my favorite is the brother of mad bomber Terry McNichols who would not put plates on his car because it was an intrusion of big government, but who nonetheless managed to take a third of a millions dollars in federal farm subsidies. I notice also that the hairy-chested red states usually get more money from the federal government than they provide.
I don’t know which is a worse evil, rich farmers getting richer from subsidies that aren’t enough to keep small farmers in business or hobby farmers using subsidies to buy weekend clothes for their pretend farms. How much of a subsidy does the president get for harvesting brush on the presidential ranch (purchased weeks before he first ran for office)? Does Michelle violate her dress code when she’s “at the farm”? Can she drive a manure spreader?
I think the issue os more hypocrisy in labeling government programs which help others “socialistic” while quietly accepting handouts yourself. I wonder what Rep. Bachmann has to say about people who raise foster children for cash payments?
Pasquino asks “Can she drive a manure spreader?”
I’d say the answer is pretty obvious.
Nice shot, pk
I’m with golfcarter here. Here we have a Representative who has voted against the subsidies everytime she’s had an opportunity. If only more of congress was voting to shut down gifts to themselves.
Hypocrisy? Possibly, but it’s pretty beer, don’t you think? I mean if you had a DFL candidate who hired an accountant to minimize their tax penalty, would that ‘raise questions about so-and-so’s commitment’ to government services?
It’s all about making sure you get yours and nobody else gets it! Farm subsidies for Bachmann! sure, it’s hypocritical.
I’m always thinking that everybody else but me knows how to get around the system.
C’mon!
It’s (apparently — she’s not telling) her husband’s brother’s money.
No good social conservative R woman has any control of her husband’s money.
PK, how many women of any stripe have control over their brother-in-law’s money?
Some might be able to decide whether to accept it.
“Guest Poster Karl Bremer of Stillwater, a marketer and free-lance journalist, considers himself U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s least favorite constituent. He has attempted to ask her questions by phone, email and letter and has never received an answer, including his queries relating to this piece.”
There ya go: “Michele Bachmann ignores cyber stalkers, dis’s Dumpsterdivers.”
The headlines write themselves!
We all wondered just how far our favorite former mouthpiece for the DFL would fall….but I don’t think anyone say this coming Eric. That dumpster has *got* to be getting pretty close by now!
No, this isn’t hypocrisy.
Carrying on an adulterous affair (and not your first) while leading the charge to impeach a president for doing the same.
Promising a “humble” foreign policy and saying that if you become President, American troops will never be tied down in “nation-building”, and then doing the exact opposite when you are elected.
Painting gay folks as lesser humans, and working to write discrimination against them into the Constitution, while soliciting gay sex in bathrooms, or hitting on same-sex pages.
Claiming you’re all for Democracy, while supporting friendly dictators, and calling for the overthrow of elected officials you don’t like.
_Those_ are examples of hypocrisy. Doozies, in fact.
But Bachmann openly and legally taking advantage of a program she’s working to end is no more hypocritical than a Democrat who is rich, and pays lower taxes now, but calls for a tax increase on his tax bracket. Although the latter may confuse many conservatives, it is in no way hypocritical (as they usually maintain).
Fair is fair. Unless she were to deny that she’d received these funds, Bachmann’s okay on this one.
She’s still batshit crazy, and an embarassment to the state and her district. But not hypocritical (at least in this case).
[…] week, guest poster Karl Bremer revealed that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann — who generally opposes big government, who has specifically […]
[…] I wrote in November about Rep. Michele Bachmann collecting federal farm subsidies through her family’s limited partnership, some claimed that her “no” vote on the 2007 […]