Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Posted on Dec 22, 2009
By Yasha Levine

Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.

And she’s not the only one who has been padding her bank account with taxpayer money.

Bachmann, of Minnesota, has spent much of this year agitating against health care reform, whipping up the so-called tea-baggers with stories of death panels and rationed health care. She has called for a revolution against what she sees as Barack Obama’s attempted socialist takeover of America, saying presidential policy is “reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom.”

But data compiled from federal records by Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks the recipients of agricultural subsidies in the United States, shows that Bachmann has an inner Marxist that is perfectly at ease with profiting from taxpayer largesse. According to the organization’s records, Bachmann’s family farm received $251,973 in federal subsidies between 1995 and 2006. The farm had been managed by Bachmann’s recently deceased father-in-law and took in roughly $20,000 in 2006 and $28,000 in 2005, with the bulk of the subsidies going to dairy and corn. Both dairy and corn are heavily subsidized—or “socialized”—businesses in America (in 2005 alone, Washington spent $4.8 billion propping up corn prices) and are subject to strict government price controls. These subsidies are at the heart of America’s bizarre planned agricultural economy and as far away from Michele Bachmann’s free-market dream world as Cuba’s free medical system. If American farms such as hers were forced to compete in the global free market, they would collapse.

However, Bachmann doesn’t think other Americans should benefit from such protection and assistance. She voted against every foreclosure relief bill aimed at helping average homeowners (despite the fact that her district had the highest foreclosure rate in Minnesota), saying that bailing out homeowners would be “rewarding the irresponsible while punishing those who have been playing by the rules.” That’s right, the subsidy queen wants the rest of us to be responsible.

Bachmann’s financial disclosure forms indicate that her personal stake in the family farm is worth up to $250,000. They also show that she has been earning income from the farm business, and that the income grew in just a few years from $2,000 to as much as $50,000 for 2008. This has provided her with a second government-subsidized income to go with her job as a government-paid congresswoman who makes $174,000 per year (in addition to having top-notch government medical benefits). “If she has an interest in a farm getting federal subsidy payments, she is benefiting from them,” Sandra Schubert, director of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, told Gannett News Service in 2007, when the subsidies to Bachmann were first publicly disclosed.

But Bachmann isn’t the only welfare recipient on Capitol Hill. As it turns out, there is a filthy-rich class of absentee farmers—both in and out of Congress—who demand free-market rules by day and collect their government welfare checks in the mail at night, payments that subsidize businesses that otherwise would fail. Over the past couple of decades, welfare for the super-wealthy seems to be the only kind of welfare our society tolerates.

In the 11 years for which the Environmental Working Group has compiled data, the federal government paid out a total of $178 billion to American farmers. We’re not talking about the Jeds here. The bulk of subsidies go to the wealthy, not small farmers, as Ken Cook, the group’s president, explained to the Central Valley (Calif.) Business Times:

American taxpayers have been writing farm subsidy checks to wealthy absentee land owners, state prison systems, universities, public corporations, and very large, well-heeled farm business operations without the government so much as asking the beneficiaries if they need our money. ... Even if you live smack in the middle of a big city, type in a ZIP code and you’ll find farm subsidy recipients.

Chuck Grassley, the longtime Republican senator from Iowa who warns his constituents of Obama’s “trend toward socialism,” has seen his family collect $1 million in federal handouts over an 11-year period, with Grassley’s son receiving $699,248 and the senator himself pocketing $238,974. Even Grassley’s grandson is learning to ride through life on training wheels, snagging $5,964 in 2005 and $2,363 in 2006. In the Grassley family they learn early how to enjoy other people’s money.

Sen. Grassley railed against government intervention in the health care market, telling The Washington Times, “Whenever the government does more ... that’s a movement toward socialism.” As the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, he ought to know, especially because the government has done more for him and his kin than for Americans struggling with high medical bills and mortgages. Even the free-market think tank the Heritage Foundation criticized Grassley on his deep connections to farming interests and his stubborn lack of transparency.

Then there’s Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., whose family has been on the government take for at least the past 11 years, pocketing some $500,000. The senator recently held a “prayercast” with Michele Bachmann to beseech God to kill health care reform as soon as possible because it would bring an evil socialist spirit into America. Like Bachmann, Brownback has a fierce belief in God, the free market and a two-year limit on all welfare benefits—unless it’s welfare to rich Republicans who don’t need it.

This is the type of shit I have been talking about for years. When the world welfare is brought up you usually think of the fat black woman in the projects with too many kids she couldn't afford but in reality, it usually goes to rich white people.

Corn alone is subsidized to the tune of about 7 Billion dollars per year going to states such as Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, etc... Yes, mainly red states, mainly states that are more rural and more conservative; the very ones who can't stand other people getting something for nothing. Lets not forget that along with corn and dairy the tobacco industry as well as sugar, cotton and almost anything you can think of is subsidized by your tax dollars. Corn, sugar, tobacco???Do you see a problem with subsidizing the very things that are killing Americans and making us fat and unhealthy and raising health care costs?? Not to mention that almost all oil companies (who make billions in profits) and mining companies also receive federal subsidies and these subsidies are typically going to more rural and poorer states with smaller urban areas who generally receive more money back from the federal government than the taxes which are collected from them. This means that IL, CA, NY, MA, FL, NJ, CT, WA, OR, etc. all have to pay for the corn, tobacco, cotton, sugar, cows in places like KY, TN, SC, AR, UT, LA, MS, AL, OK, NE, etc.

Michele Bachmann is a Socialist!!!

Another Chain Letter from the Paranoid Delusional Reich Wing

You know how I hate those bullshit chain letters your always get from your crazy Aunt and are typically just all bullshit. Well, here is another one with my rebuttals in red.


This was checked on Snopes (searched "Letter to Obama from Lou Pritchett"), and it is for real .

A MUST READ

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change manage ment. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.


AN OPEN LETTER TO
PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me. But Nixon, Bush and senile Reagan with his hand on the button made you sleep soundly at night?

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you. Because you can’t read. There are at least 2 books out about his entire life.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support. They are called scholarships and student loans. When you are smart, people actually offer them to you. Lawyers typically don’t have much trouble paying these things off. Not to mention a couple of best selling books which far outsold your book Mr. Prichett. Who did you think paid for them, the Saudis?? No, they are the ones who paid for Bush’s now bankrupt companies. How about 2 lawyers and a Professor of the University of Chicago salaries paying for a modest house in a black neighborhood which is a relatively inexpensive house by Chicago’s standards? You think those might be ways of paying for this house?

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American. Just because you and Palin don’t know that Hawaii is a state within the United States of America doesn’t mean what you are saying is true. Barack Obama lived abroad from the years 1967-1971. So if by formative years you mean between 7 and 11 years old, then you are correct. At least he can find Indonesia on the map which is more than I can say for Sarah Palin or our last President. Living abroad educates you and expands your horizons far more than shooting elk from a helicopter or drilling empty holes in the Texas desert. So Lou, were you also just as terrified of John McCain who was born in Panama?

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll. But you prefer someone like Bush who has ran several companies into bankruptcy only to have them baled out by his fathers rich Saudi friends. The difference here is that when Bush bankrupted the U.S. the Saudis weren’t here to bale us out. So which companies and payrolls did Sarah Palin, Ronald Reagan and John McCain run?

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core. Just like Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz,Reagan, Lincoln, Palin, Adams, Jefferson, etc. However, John Kerry served in Vietnam but you chose not to vote for him.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others. So you are saying that the economy is Obama’s fault, not his predecessor? Iraq and Afghanistan are Obama's fault, not Bush's? Good one. He is merely calling a spade a spade.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail. He met Bill Ayers a few times while serving on a board of directors. His minister gave one speech about how Americas action can come back to haunt us. At least he didn’t spend half his life taking money from the extremist Saudi government or America haters such as Rush Limbaugh who want the country to fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America ' crowd and deliver this message abroad. Name one speech where Obama blamed America. America is to blame for Iraq, for the Shah of Iran, Pinochet, Efrain Rios Montt of Guatemala, Noriega, The Taliban, Saddam Hussein, etc. and the list goes one. Just because Fox News doesn’t tell you about it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. You are being lied to.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector. You mean where everyone has health care, they have a longer life expectancy rate, lower infant mortality rate, lower crime rate, lower murder rate, stronger economy, valuable currency, are scientifically driven, highly educated, high wages, at peace,etc??? Yes, that would be awful. Let's avoid that at all costs.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a controlled one. That’s a good thing. An all things go, laze faire, profit driven approach to health care has produced the most expensive health care system in the world and one of the worst in the western world. 1/3 of every health care dollar is spent on insurance profit and bureaucracy and over half of all family bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves. Vast?? Is that supposed to be a joke? If America stopped importing foreign oil and lived only on what we could extract from National Parks and wild life refuges, at best estimates we could get a year and halfs worth of oil out of Alaska. And is T.Boone Pickens, an oil man, lying about oil and wind?

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world. Well, highest standard of living in the world for the upper class, one of the lowest standards of living for the poor in the Western Industrialized world. He doesn’t want to tax American job providing companies. He wants to punish the tax evading, job exporting corporations who are trying to eliminate the middle class and transfer that wealth from the middle class to the upper class and then, he wants to raise the tax rates on those people to the same rates they paid under Reagan.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations. Who have been living on the government’s money. Money doesn’t come with no strings attached no matter what. If you wan’t daddies money, you have to live under daddies rules.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals. Ever hear about the Blue Dog Democrats? I think you are talking about Bush’s congress, they are the ones who gave him a blank check in Iraq and a blank check for the AIG bailout which Paulson needed to puch through because AIG owed his former company, Goldman Sachs so much money that if they defaulted they would be out of business.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people. Rush Limbaugh, a college drop out, doesn’t count as intelligent. A mediocre graduate from Idaho State University who thinks she would be good at foreign policy because she can see Russia from her house, doesn’t count as intelligent.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient. Omnipotent is almost the exact definition of both Cheney and Bush. Are you blind? Obama has repeatedly brought Republicans to the table to try and include them on issues. As far as omniscience goes, well, it is a bit shocking to have a President who actually knows things, I know. It may look like he is trying to be a know it all but as it turns out, he just knows more than you which makes him smarter than you and our last President, not omniscience.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do. The media? you mean like Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, The Drudge Report, The Weekly Standard, The National Review, The Christian Science Monitor? Yes, Fox News never calls him a communist or lies about how he is trying to take away the first amendment. I love how the free passes were never a problem with you guys when Faux News was doing it for Bush.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view. No, not silence or demonize, just point out how they lie and that they are wrong. When you don’t tell the truth and the opposing party gets upset about it, that is not demonizing or silencing, it’s a natural reaction.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing. Do you even know the difference? Name one thing he is trying to control. And by control over governing, how do no warrant wire taps fit into this picture?

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years. Now you know how liberals felt for the last 8 years…except they weren’t delusional. Bush actually signed laws restricting our rights, Obama has done no such thing, not even with assault weapons which are fueling Mexico’s drug war which coincidentally escalated shortly after the Assault Weapon ban was repealed.

Lou Pritchett

With Rebuttal by Toad

The New Obama Attack Ad Clarified

I also heard Obama is an alien who has green blood and eats baby brains!

1. Obama was 10 years old and living in Hawaii when the Capital Building was bombed. If Ted Haggard can go from a meth smoking homosexual who hires prostitutes to a Christian family man overnight, can't someone who was involved in a shady organization 35 years ago also change?

2. Obama and Ayers used to both be on the board of a charity which helped poor people. Obama left that charity 6 years ago. So if helping poor people is "left wing" then I guess the Christian Children's Fund is also left wing.

3. Ayers has never been convicted of any bombings, murders or treason.

4. The Weathermen / Weather Underground never killed anyone in any of their bombing campaigns. Unlike Abortion protesters and Blackwater, civilians were never targets and warnings were given before all their bombings.

5. Like most University of Chicago professors, both live in Hyde Park in Chicago along with 30,000 other people who live in that neighborhood. If you check the sex offender’s website in Chicago, I am sure you will find that Obama also lives near rapists and child molesters, just as nearly everyone in the US does. It doesn't make Obama a rapist.

6. Just as many right wing organizations and radicals such as Hagee and Rod Parsley who have supported McCain, Ayers has made a $200 contribution to the Obama campaign. If you look hard enough, I am sure you can find someone who has actually been convicted of a crime that has also given him money as well as you could with any and every politician including McCain and his shady oil lobbyists.

7. The police killing referred to was by two former members on the Weather Underground who killed a guard and cops in a bank robbery, not a terrorist, anti-American plot. These killings took place in 1981 years after the Weathermen were disbanded. And if guilt by association is the law of the land, it must be noted that the brother of one of these murderers was nominated to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals by President H.W. Bush. Are you saying Bush Sr. and Michael Boudin are all American hating terrorists too?

The ad should say "Do you know enough to not be this gullible?" Or perhaps, "Beyond the Houses and the flip flopping on his stance on abortion and his religion, how much do you really know about John McCain"?