“Tea Party” Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, who just so happens to be running for president, has made a career out of decrying examples of our government moving towards socialism, whether in the form of the Democratic health care reform legislation signed into law by President Obama or the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), just to cite two examples. However, while Rep. Bachmann wants folks to believe she abhors government socialism and intervention into free markets, there’s apparently one example of government socialism/intervention into free markets that Rep. Bachmann absolutely loves, that being direct government purchases of pork and dairy products.
On October 5, 2009, Rep. Bachmann wrote Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter praising him for injecting money into the pork industry through the form of direct government purchases, and in her letter Bachmann went on to request additional assistance.
“Your efforts to stabilize prices through direct government purchasing of pork and dairy products are very much welcomed by the producers in Minnesota, and I would encourage you to take any additional steps necessary to prevent further deterioration of these critical industries, such as making additional commodity purchases and working to expand trade outlets for these and other agricultural goods,” Bachmann wrote.
In 2009 alone, Secretary Vilsack authorized over $100 million in direct purchases of pork by the USDA, which sure does seem a lot like the exact same kind of government intervention into the free market that Rep. Michele Bachmann has been so critical of over the past two years.
So what exactly do ‘they’ raise on her family farm…pork, dairy, corn for ethanol?