Michele Bachmann: 'Welfare queen'?

Rep. Bachmann warns Obama's pushing socialism. Does it matter that her family farm gets subsidies?

Michele Bachmann
(Image credit: Creative Commons)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has decried government "handouts" as socialism, but an Environmental Working Group analysis of farm subsidies shows that the Bachmann family farm, managed by her father-in-law until his recent death, received $251,000 in farm payments between 1995 and 2006. Bachmann's stake in the Wisconsin farm is worth as much as $250,000. Is Bachmann being hypocritical, or is she a principled conservative working in a broken system?

Bachmann is a "welfare queen": Michele Bachmann is a an anti-subsidy "tea bagger" by day, says Yasha Levine in Truthdig, and a hypocritical "welfare queen" by night. "If American farms such as hers were forced to compete in the global free market, they would collapse." Bachmann says President Obama's health-care reform and other initiatives are part of a socialist takeover, but she's the one "padding her bank account with taxpayer money."

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