Michele Bachmann recently announced her intentions to seek the GOP Nomination for President in 2012 during the second Republican Presidential Debate in New Hampshire. The Tea Party favorite widely based her presidential ambitions on a platform of fiscal responsibility and cutting “federal pork.” Bachmann once proudly told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly she doesn’t “need government (money) to be successful.” however, Bachmann and her family have received large sums of “federal pork.”
Despite Bachmann’s strong stance against socialized medicine, her husband Marcus, according to Minnesota State Records, applied for $30,000 in public funds for his counseling clinic, Bachmann and Associates, located in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. By 2006, Bachmann’s clinic has received all $30,000 in public monies he requested. More than 80% this money came from the state Department of Human Services. A department largely funded by the Federal Government. Michele Bachmann lists her husband’s clinic as an asset on her financial disclosure form.
Bachmann also lists her late father-in-laws, Paul Bachmann’s farm that according to the U.S Department of Agriculture received $260,000 in Federal Money through Dairy and Corn subsidies, despite the Representatives strong stance against handouts and “Federal Pork.” Bachmann said in December that the subsidies went to her in-laws and she never received "one penny" from the farm, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. However, in financial disclosure forms, she reported receiving between $32,503 and $105,000 in income from the farm, at minimum, between 2006 and 2009. Which begs the question, did Bachmann really have her constituents best interest in mind when she wrote to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack praising the Federal Government for stabilizing the dairy market by increasing the amount of dairy purchased to be used in school lunches, and other government programs.
