Hypocrite Bachmann's Shameless Letter-Marking & Farm Subsidies

The back-channel requests for stimulus funding (letter-marks) from GOPers including Bachmann who demonized stimulus funding-marks and earmarks has made big news, but will it have an effect on the outcome of the election?

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.

It's Farm Subsidy Time for Michele Bachmann!

From the Bachmann campaign:

Bachmann Accepts the Minnesota Farm Bureau's
“Friend of the Year" Award
(Washington, DC) Today, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06) accepted the “Friend of the Year" Award from the Minnesota Farm Bureau.

Bachmann was presented the award in the presence of several young farmers and ranchers from Minnesota and said, “I’m honored to be considered a Friend of the Year by the Minnesota Farm Bureau. Surrounded by young farmers, I recognize how important it is that these generations continue to have a voice in Congress for their industry. I’m thankful to the Minnesota Farm Bureau for this recognition and will continue to work with the farming and agriculture communities to ensure that families can continue to pass on their heritage of farming to each generation.”

Michele Bachmann won the award for being such a staunch supporter of farm subsidies, considering she has collected over a quarter million of them.

Michele Bachmann's Farm

From the comments:

Just a couple of questions. Michele says that the farmers are "geniuses". Didn't I hear that Michele is "a farmer"? Does she include herself as a genius?

I wonder about Michele Bachmann's farm. What does she grow? How can she run a farm while being in Washington? Does she really have a farm?

The reason I ask is that if Michele has a farm wouldn't some of you nice MIchele snipers have tried to figure out if the farm is taking any government subsidy money? Wouldn't it be delicious if somebody discovered that Michele set up a farm when she discovered as a tax lawyer that she could suck up a pile of taxpayer's dollars with a phoney farm?

I didn't discover Michele until last year. Some of you have been opposing her since before 2006. Surely the "Old McBachamnn has a farm" question has been picked apart by now. I've just never heard if she refuses government money or if she's a hyupocrite.
C.M.

Karl Bremer wrote about Michele Bachmann's Farm Subsidies here.

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 the kind of “farmer” that most Minnesotans think should be collecting subsidy checks? After all, Bachmann, with a $165,200 a year Congressional salary, recently described families earning $83,000 a year in Minnesota as “rich.”

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.

We've followed up here.

Bachmann’s farm profits helping pay the mortgage on her million-dollar golf course manor

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.

Bachmann filed her 2008 Financial Disclosure Statement over a month late on June 26. She has yet to file it on time since being elected.