SC Times: "Bachmann reaps subsidy benefit"

WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, a critic of federal farm subsidy programs, has a stake in a family farm that has provided her relatives with $251,973 in federal subsidies from 1995 to 2006, according to the Environmental Working Group.


Bachmann lists as an asset a stake in the family farm in Independence, Wis., valued at $100,000 to $250,000, according to her 2007 personal financial disclosure.

She received $1,001 to $2,000 in farm income payments last year and $2,001 to $5,000 in 2006, according to her disclosure reports.

Bachmann's spokesman, Stephen Miller, said he did not know how the income was earned or whether it was a subsidy payment. He said Bachmann was not immediately available to discuss the issue.

The disclosure reports offer a broad look at lawmakers' finances. It looks at assets, income, and debts in wide ranges.

It excludes the value of primary residences, furniture and other items, making it difficult to assess a lawmaker's exact net worth.

Sandra Schubert, director of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, said Bachmann has benefited from the subsidies going to the farm that she lists as an asset.

“If she has a (financial) interest in a farm getting federal subsidy payments, she is benefiting from them," Schubert said.

In 2006, Michele Bachmann's father-in-law, Paul Bachmann, received $19,528 in farm subsidy payments from the farm, according to the most recent data available from the working group. The group is a nonprofit research entity that has a national database on farm subsidies.

Miller said crops are raised on the farm and it also produces dairy and some beef. Miller said Paul Bachmann is retired and lives on the farm with his wife.

Bachmann voted against the farm bill that passed the House and Senate.

Bachmann opposed the bill because it was “loaded with unbelievably outrageous pork and subsidies for agricultural business and ethanol growers," she said.

She also said Congress wants the taxpayers to “pick up the tab for pet earmarks and wealthy landowners."