The Guardian's Michael Tomasky:
What is terrible is the hypocrisy around the issue. Because if people like McConnell acknowledged that federal spending was a useful thing, they would undercut their own shameless, artificial rhetoric; their entire rhetorical and political posture, in fact, would be null and void. So they go out and say that "we can fairly safely declare [the stimulus bill] now a failure," as McConnell did last year, and behind everyone's backs do this. And Bachmann - $300 million!
I'm not outraged that we are surrounded by such charlatans. That's life. I'm outraged that something like this is not itself a cause of outrage, and that the bulk of our political media are far more interested in questions like Obama's "failure to connect" to "regular" voters, which is to some extent true but is not a problem for the republic in the same way something like this is.
It is an outrage. But just one of many in Bachmann's cornucopia of hypocritical outrages.
Tarryl Clark made this statement to PiPress reporter Jason Hoppin:
Clark said her opponent's requests are evidence of hypocrisy, citing several other examples, including Bachmann slamming Clark for supporting the 2008 Legacy Amendment even though many say Bachmann herself supported it, as well attacking the Farm Bill even though her husband's family farm received subsidies through it.
"I think her actions speak louder than her words — or her inaction, most of the time," Clark said. "Which is it? Is she for it or against it?"
Yes, what about those farm subsidies?
Profits are up on the Bachmann family farm in Buffalo County, Wisconsin. Michele Bachmann's 2009 Financial Disclosure Statement reported profits of between $15,001-$50,000 from the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership in 2008. Bachmann failed to list the profits from the farm on her 2008 disclosure statement, but in 2007, she reported between $5,001-$15,000 profits in 2006.
The Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership comprises 949 acres spread out over 36 parcels in Montana Township in west-central Wisconsin's Buffalo County. The Partnership was formed in 2001. The parcels were assessed in 2006 at $335,200 and $10,200, respectively.
In 2007, Karl Bremer reported that land owned by the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership had collected at least $127,868 in federal farm subsidies since the partnership was formed in 2001. Federal subsidies for the Bachmann farm averaged about $30,000 between from 2003-2005, the most recent years for which data is available.
In addition to her farm income, Bachmann also reported 2008 dividends of between $50,001-$100,000 from Bachmann & Associates Psychotherapy in Lake Elmo, an asset she values at between $100,001-$250,000. She reported no net profits from Bachmann Clinic Properties in Lake Elmo, which presumably house the Bachmann psychotherapy clinic.
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