Michele Bachmann's Farm Received Over $250,000 in Federal Subsidies

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has made herself a prominent face in the Republican Party in 2009, delivering incendiary speeches at Tea Party protests against taxes, bailouts, and other forms of government intervention. Last week, she hosted a rally in Washington against health care reform, which she opposes as a "government takeover."

But according to a report by the liberal political Web site Truthdig, Bachmann is not so vociferous about her distaste for "socialized" industry when it comes to her family farm in Minnesota, which accepted over a quarter of a million dollars in federal agriculture subsidies from 1995 to 2006. Most of the subsidies went to dairy and corn, which are heavily price-controlled. Bachmann's personal profit from the farm has ranged from $2,000 some years to $50,000 in 2008, according to tax documents.

Self-described "true" conservatives, like those Bachmann has led this year, are known to viciously oppose farm subsidies, which pay farmers to grow unnecessary crops that are often discarded.

Bachmann is not the only Republican to decry government benefits as socialism, but still accept federal subsidies for themselves. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's family has collected nearly $1 million in federal handouts over an 11-year period, including $699,248 for his son and $238,974 for himself. The senator is so deeply tied to government-planned farming interests that the free-market Heritage Foundation has criticized him.

"Whenever the government does more, that's a movement toward socialism," Grassley told the Washington Times in a statement opposing what he called government intervention in health care.