"If American farms such as hers were forced to compete in the global free market, they would collapse."
The lefty site Truthdig unearths some inconvenient facts about conservative Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann:
[D]ata 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.
Whole colorful story here, complete with cameos by fellow welfare queens Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). And for an accounting of the vast farm subsidies collected by media baron Ted Turner and Farm Aid co-founder John Mellencamp (and family), see this piece by Matt Welch.
