Yet another anti-government Teabagger Welfare Queen

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Posted by digby at 11:36 am
April 4, 2010

Tea Party Darling Gets 200K Government Handout

This post was originally published on Hullabaloo.


Here’s a little story about a handsome young conservative congressional candidate in Tennessee named Stephen Fincher who is attracting lots of attention from the national GOP, which is swooning over his corn pone appeal and ability to raise gobs of money. The local teabaggers also love him to death but just don’t know what to do about the fact that he collects 200k a year from the feds in farm subsidies:

“This effort is to try to get the Republican Party to try to give us more conservative candidates,” said David Nance, a Fincher supporter and the founder of the Gibson County Patriots, in Jackson, Tenn. “A few days ago, I was watching two candidates on one of the news channels, and basically they were kind of sparring over which one was the more conservative. Now that tells me that something’s working…”

Fincher’s supporters are drawn to his social conservatism, including his antiabortion stand, and his commitment to opposing new taxes (he signed the no-tax pledge of the group Americans for Tax Reform). He is more conservative than some of the other Republican candidates, but the filing deadline for the primary hasn’t passed yet.

“He is for the Constitution,” said Lucy Overstreet, an organizer with the Jackson Madison County TEA Party who is supporting Fincher. “He is for getting the budget balanced. He does not want this health care. He is right in line with the views we are holding true to.”

Nance, of the Gibson County Patriots, said, “I don’t see the agricultural subsidy thing as an issue at all,” adding: “If it were an issue, then we would never elect a farmer to Congress at all. Because basically, most farmers get agriculture subsidies. If they didn’t, they’d be broke, and we’d be buying our food from China.”

(...)

According to data compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, Fincher and his wife, Lynn, received about $2.5 million in subsidies between 1995 and 2006. But Fincher said that without that money, his farm would have shut down years ago.

He also said the subsidies come with conditions, such as when he was required to spend thousands of dollars building an earthen terrace to control erosion. And without the money, he said, American farmers couldn’t compete with countries that subsidize fuel and fertilizer more generously than the United States.

“People are quick to say with their mouth full, ‘Well, the American farmer is on the dole,’ ” Fincher said. “But a loaf of bread is two bucks when it could be 10 bucks. I know what it is with the government in my business. We would be all for not having government in our business, but we need a fair system.”

Yeah, those free markets are a real bitch ain’t they?

There are some naysayers among the local teabaggers, but I have a feeling they’re going to come around all right once they hear that excellent explanation as to why an individual getting 200k a year from the federal government is fine — if they are a good old boy who really, really needs the money, that is. (It’s not like he’s one of those welfare queens or anything …) They’ll be fine with it. And those who aren’t are probably going to lose the argument among their peers.

Sometimes you just have to stand back in awe of conservatives. This guy doesn’t think anyone should have to pay taxes but he collects nearly a quarter of a million bucks from the treasury every year. You almost have to admire the cheek.


http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/04/04/tea-party-darling-gets-200k-government-handout/

[ingac70]

1. gonna keep kicking this!

[dotymed]

70. Can you believe these I D I O T S ?????????

Come on. If you believe in no taxes, no health insurance for the underprivileged, Basically, "if you can afford it, you get it "." How in the Hell can you reconcile that with the fact that you openly support a "conservative" candidate who "believes in the same principles that you do", YET he is given $20,000.00 a month:party: so he can be wealthy? In my circle, a quarter of a million dollars a year, is WEALTHY ! He does not have to WORK for this money. We the taxpayers, give him the money so he doesn't work. If we all go and buy (through some miracle) a farm, lots of land and money (credit at least). Then our neo-con. government will make all of us wealthy too, even though they are against "welfare" and that "type" of person? Pretzel (non)logic. How can these people not have the common sense to realize that being a citizen of a government, is a contract. We agree to certain laws and benefits, as they (the Govt,) do, we pay taxes (even if it's not income taxes) and according to this established contract we all meet our obligations (ideally). I am a Liberal, I am not convinced that farm subsidies (especially now) are fair.If I supported a political candidate and he received farm subsidies, I would probably change my allegiance. Really, how insane that these "conservatives" consider this a "non-issue?" What they are saying is " as long as this person is wealthy (even if he gets it from "welfare"of course he has to be "presentable"), he is the right color, he wants to keep "certain people" oppressed, he is the right religion (extreme), etc.... He has my political support. How shallow can people be? Don't these people have any desire for a fair world? This really confuses me so much (and a lot of certain political "beliefs" do) that I can not even make a logical argument against it. It is insane.:think: :wtf: :dunce: :wow:

[quiet.american]

80. Seconded. nt

[SoCalDem]

2. Well, maybe his "farm" should have shut down years ago, then.

If he's too busy" politicking to actually farm, maybe he should have sold the farm to someone who would farm it.

MANY farm subsidies came about, to pay farmers to NOT farm.. that's how successful we used to be, when it came to growing stuff..

We used to have huge surpluses, and "the market" did not like low prices that went with surpluses. We used to give the stuff away in aid because the government would BUY the crops, in order to keep prices stable, but it became easier to just give the farmers the CASH..and ask them to just not grow crops in exchange for the money..

The land became their "cash-crop"... Being a Kansan, I saw this all the time. Many wheat farmers became quite wealthy from subsidies, and the money they made from NOT farming, launched a whole lot of farm-children into lucrative non-farming careers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Very true about Kansas farmers

All the ones I know are stinking rich and they get paid well by the USDA to NOT grow crops. A lot of them have also found oil and natural gas under their land.

And they have way too much power in this state.

[Wapsie B]

66. Same mentality among Iowa and Illinois farmers as well.

They go on and on about the free market but try and give them a dose of a truly free market and see what happens. They are extremely protective about those subsidies, as if it's some kind of birthright. My thinking is this. If you run a business that's truly viable why on earth would you need government assistance? I've grown up around this entitlement mentality that it's really given me a high level of cynicism about the whole system. It's gotten so that when I see one of these over-sized pickups (or what used to be over-sized to me) I have to wonder how many were purchased by someone's wages and how many were obtained through farm tax breaks?

[happygoluckytoyou]

67. IN A RELATED STORY naan and kulcha manufacturing outsourced to india

[SpiralHawk]

3. Typical Republicon hypocrisy

Verily, as they demonstrate daily, Republicons are
THE Latter Day Pharisees.

[NJmaverick]

4. k&R

[RKP5637]

5. So typical... n/t

[Doc_Technical]

6. Catch 22

This reminds me of an excerpt from the book that
had the greatest influence on me.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=17370424&blogId=300777680

[wroberts189]

24. Very appropiate....

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Major Major’s Father

Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age.

He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism.

He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any.

The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa that he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa.

On long winter evenings he stayed indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap," he counseled one and all, and everyone said, "Amen."
Major Major's father was an outspoken champion of economy in government, provided it did not interfere with the sacred duty of government to pay farmers as much as they could get for all the alfalfa they produced that no one else wanted or for not producing any alfalfa at all. He was a proud and independent man who was opposed to unemployment insurance and never hesitated to whine, whimper, wheedle, and extort for as much as he could get from whomever he could. He was a devout man whose pulpit was everywhere.

[pinboy3niner]

36. Spot on! Thanks

Now I really want to go back and re-read Heller . . .

[TrogL]

46. Catch-22 - love that book

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Why do the Republicans object to his subsidies?

Isn't he rich enough to qualify for government handouts or something?

[ck4829]

8. K&R

[BeatleBoot]

9. K&R

Fucking idiots.

[JoeyT]

10. I've started taking any chance I can get in conversations with people

to brand guys like this and corporate welfare as the real welfare queens.

It would be highly ironic if we could turn St. Ronnie's "Welfare Queens" meme against the people that created it.

[wolfgangmo]

31. I do that too.

It's fun watching there eyes bug out and their mouth, which used to run on and on like diarhea, freeze up like antarctica. They could argue with that point, except that it is correct and they don't have a talking point against it issued by the "liberal" media guru's like Rush and Beck.

[rgbecker]

11. Pardon me, I just woke up. Is this the Bail Out they were talking about last year?

$200,000/yr. To keep his farm in business?

[wroberts189]

23. No they have been getting these subsidies for years..big time welfare for small *and* big farmers.nt

[DesertFlower]

12. K&R. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Gawd. Inthe dictionary next to the definition of HYPOCRITE, with the pictures

of the repukes..there must be a few pictures of the Teahadists ranting against the very things they are willing to benefit from.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Bread for $10 a loaf??

I almost want this idiot to put his bread on the shelf and ask $10 for it.

What a numbnut.

[wolfgangmo]

32. Bread in france

Current cost is slightly more than 1 franc per kilo (2.2 pounds).

That is wonderbread territory (except french bread is actually, like, food)

[Beartracks]

16. Wow, disconnect much?

>> Nance, of the Gibson County Patriots, said, “I don’t see the agricultural subsidy thing as an issue at all,” adding: “If it were an issue, then we would never elect a farmer to Congress at all. Because basically, most farmers get agriculture subsidies. If they didn’t, they’d be broke, and we’d be buying our food from China.”

Where does she think the money comes from to pay these farm subsidies: the subsidy fairy? :rofl:

-----------

[xxqqqzme]

25. She doesn't know it is being

borrowed from China.

[Enthusiast]

52. THEY will believe anything. nt

[bulloney]

53. I remember meeting with farmers for farm organization membership drives several years ago.

Every time you went on one of these drives, you meet at least one who beats his chest and gives you the "we don't need any stinkin' farm subsidies" talk and boasts that he gets his income from the market.

A few years ago the Environmental Working Group came out with a website that listed everyone who received farm program payments by state and county and the amount they received during the previous five years. Almost without fail, the biggest recipients in the counties I recruited in were these "we don't need any stinkin' farm subsidies" types.

There must be a hypocrisy gene in these peoples' makeup or something.

[Democat]

57. So, do they support airline and auto industry subsidies as well?

If not, we might have to buy cars from Japan and planes from France.

[Caretha]

17. They continually

shoot themselves in the foot. You would think they would be for gun control.

[Pharaoh]

18. It Boggles the Mind!

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: K&R

[kristopher]

19. K&R

[alp227]

20. Conservatives: "Rights for me, not for thee!"

Whether the rights be welfare, or religious ones (especially regarding social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion; conservative Christians regard their civil rights more valuable than everyone else's).

[rpannier]

51. If you're poor

There's the door

If you got money, here's more honey

[jwirr]

21. He doesn't get it. Farm subsidies are needed but that does not mean

they are any different than other government programs that are also needed. He wants to divide it up - his are good - theirs are bad.

[Golden Raisin]

22. They pick and choose

which specific portions of the Bible and the Constitution they wish to support, and ignore or publicly abhor the others. Why should government subsidies be any different?

[Zambero]

26. I mean...

you'd think these people would just fade into the background, bank their wads of gov't cash, and just shut the **** up. But why do that when hypocrisy beckons AND your base of support is basically clueless?

[rasputin1952]

27. Reeks of "Socialism" to me...

I wonder if the "Golden Crew" is backing him as well...you know, all those who collect Social Security and are on Medicare...damn R socialists just piss me off...:rofl:

[Mojeoux]

49. K&R

[harmonicon]

28. fucking idiots

Also, these tactics involve more lies and faulty reasoning... so, we need subsidies to keep down the price of food, or umm... to keep it up, because we don't want the "free market" to work in this case and get our food from China... anyway - their argument confuses me as well.

One real point though: the wheat in a loaf of bread costs about $0.10. If we had parity to double what the farmers make, that loaf of bread would go up $0.10, not $8.

[varelse]

29. cognitive dissonance again

Are the teabaggers even capable of having a rational thought?

[wolfgangmo]

30. And let's not forget the ever run Michelle Bachmann

She claims to be a saintly woman having once said "I'm hot for Jesus." (shudder)

Her and her unlicencable husband / councilor took in 23 foster kids. Once you add up that the State provides $1100 per kid per month plus the government picked up all medical and education costs while the Bachmann's were warehousing those kids. In other words they were given a ton of money for clothes and food. Do the math and you will find that they took in $25,300 per month or $303,600 per year - tax free.

Now THAT is a welfare queen.

[geardaddy]

75. Plus she took 250K in farm subsidies

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1209/Antisocialist_Bachmann_got_250k_in_federal_farm_subsidies.html

[gtar100]

33. More conservative / Less conservative - They've lost touch with what it means to be human.

As if this ideal of being a "conservative" were the most important thing in life. I bet they have no serious definition of what it means to them to be a conservative. Their self-identity is wrapped up in a bunch of talking points. And their thinking is reactionary, not critical or considered.

Do you think they ate too many mad-cow hamburgers and steaks?

[freebrew]

68. Their Self-Identity is whatever...

FUX 'News' Tells them it should be.

There doesn't seem to be a rational thought among them to share with anyone.

[Historic NY]

34. K&R for the teabag welfare queen will he give back the money & take an oath.

[Historic NY]

35. Do we even know if he grows anything?

[rpannier]

37. It's not a handout... It's an investment

Now if they were poor, inner-city or a racial minority then it would be a handout

[patrice]

42. It would not be possible to invest in the poor? Wouldn't that end, or at least reduce, the handouts?

[rpannier]

50. Everyone knows that giving money to the rich is investing

Giving to the poor is a handout

Republican/Conservative Think 101

[patrice]

60. Republican/Consertive Think 101 needs to THINK about what Adam Smith said about

how WORK is THE fundamental Real Value in an economic system . . . not private digits processed in private processes inside of privately owned computers.

[caseymoz]

38. Oh, gee. You mean if farming were done free market, people would starve?

I'm guessing that's what $10 for a loaf of bread would do.

And we have to have subsidies to compete with those inefficient, corrupt, "socialists" who subsidize their farmers? So, with "socialism" and capitalism (free market bullshit) competing head-to-head "socialism" wins? Is that what they're saying?

Are Teabaggers brains so heavily damaged that they can't see the obvious contradictions here? Or is it just a matter of grinning and bearing it while another part of their brain implodes. I think the only way teabaggers live is that the human brain has no sensory nerves in it for pain.

[Papa Boule]

73. That $10-a-loaf thing jumped out at me too

He's admitting government "interference in the free market" in the form of subsidies and regulation is keeping affordable food on the shelves. And he's warning of the consequences if the government were to stop or if farmers were to refuse to accept it.

The ability to contradicting information (i.e., two opposing "truths") in their brains without it shaking up their ideology is something Bob Altemeyer wrote about in The Authoritarians. If I recall, it has something to do with never bringing contradicting ideas to mind at the same time. They never get compared or contrasted, so contradictions are never recognized.

[Oldtimeralso]

39. K & R and proud to help the cause n/t

[valerief]

40. How do clowns like him walk with balls that big? nt

[tango-tee]

41. K&R!

[EFerrari]

43. I'm so glad it's not to late to rec this.

What a bunch of ridiculous hypocrites.

[Tsiyu]

44. K&R

No admiration here, just disgust.

That single mother down his street - who made $12,000 last year working her ass off - doesn't deserve any health care for her kids or a few more bucks in food stamps. She shouldn't have made the choice to have kids. (Not that Fincher would have allowed her to have access to birth control or safe abortion.)

But HE deserves millions in welfare because of the choice HE made? How bout if farmers can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps they sink like the rest of us peons?

Fuck off, Fincher. You're just another Right Wing Tool talking out both sides of your mouth, pushing the poor down with one hand while the other hand is held out begging.

Fuck the hell off.

[upi402]

45. Are there statistics? ...for party affilliation I mean

I bet Teabaggers are a high % of population of the gov't dole.

ALL Republicans I know are/have been on something;
Food Stamps (one owns a very expensive house in a high end area)
Labor & Industries medical
Labor & Industries time lost 80% wages
Frivolous lawsuit proceeds - and off to the casino
Unemployment
Disability

I don't know ONE not on the dole.

[Mojeoux]

47. K&R

[Mojeoux]

48. K&R

[Democat]

56. There was an article posted about Tea Party members being highly unemployed

The article said that high unemployment of Tea Party members is one reason that are so angry and one reason they have so much time to protest.

[keepthemhonest]

62. Good question

Is there are way to calculate this.

[Democat]

54. He deserves a bailout every year, but the auto industry doesn't get one?

Or the banks, or middle class Americans who aren't farmers?

This guy is the ultimate hypocrite!

[pokercat999]

55. See the movie "Food, Inc" it'll make you want to stop eating.

But it does a lot to explain why government subsidies are "needed".

[mstinamotorcity]

58. Well you know what will happen

They will say he is a good old boy and "keep your liberal hands off my farm subsides you socialist":rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :hi:

[rurallib]

59. Makes Grassley a piker at only $100,000/year.

yeah that anti-spending wrecker of health care.
To be honest, Chuckie only gets @$25,000 himself; his son gets the rest.

[progressoid]

61. Wow, that irony is pretty deep.

:crazy:

[sulphurdunn]

63. How is it

that government subsidized agriculture is just fine for keeping food prices down and for rewarding rich farmers but subsidized medicine is not fine for keeping health care costs down even if it rewards rich insurance companies? :crazy:

[dotymed]

72. Can Anyone Tell Me

What I need to do to qualify for farm subsidies? Really? My extended family has been hit hard by unemployment and illness, many are currently uninsured. Can the few of us that still have a home, sell them, purchase "a farm" and build our homes there? How can we qualify for these "subsidies?" We could live a good "subsidized" life if we all (cousins and their kids too) bought many acres of usable land, it seems. Are there preconditions for this? We want to live in TN. Really, we need help as their are no manufacturing jobs. If we could live and profit by owning this land none of us would have to apply for "welfare" or medicaid or unemployment. We would "productive citizens." Honestly does anyone know where I can get informed about these programs?
I have an Aunt, whom I love, she is very conservative and believes that everyone should support themselves. She lives on a large, non productive farm and is a widow. She buys a new vehicle each year and always vacations. She tithes at least ten percent to her Baptist church and would not help her children to financially prosper (or make the rent). It just dawned on me :dunce: that she surely gets handsome subsidies. I am glad that it is not welfare, because she would probably refuse that and starve...

[sulphurdunn]

74. In East Tenessee

you'd need at least 50 to 100 acres of cultivable land with a habitable house and outbuildings that is close to a good road and on the utility grid. Throw in farm equipment, maybe some livestock, all other upfront costs, and you're conservatively looking at about a million dollars if you do it right. Good luck. :headbang:

[MisterP]

82. have you ever heard a bagger really complaining about the insurERS?

except the Paulistas, who say that they're pure evil--even worse than Social Security and Medicare... :crazy:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

64. Has this been published in the NY TImes or Washington Post?

[KansDem]

65. "But Fincher said that without that money, his farm would have shut down years ago."

Then work harder, Fucker! Isn't that the GOP mantra? "No handouts!" If you find yourself falling down or behind, you work harder. Don't want to lose the farm, then work harder...Fucker!!!

[quiet.american]

81. Well said. nt

[Homer Wells]

69. Kick

[liberation]

71. There is no depth to their hypocrisy, is there?

Good grief, these people are not just insane, they lack any sense of shame or decorum.

[geardaddy]

76. And if a Democrat had taken subsidies

The Shitebaggers would be in an uproar.

:puke:

[kestrel91316]

77. K&R

[ooglymoogly]

78. Can you spell Hypocrisy....

If you spelled hypocrisy, H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y, you get a loud 'ennnnnn'. The correct way to spell hypocrisy is the Machiavellian R-e-p-u-b-l-i-c-a-n-i-s-m. Not to be confused with say, Milton et al or the classic Roman version of Republicanism extolling the virtues of civic duty and responsibility to the poorest amongst us; And; The correct meaning of the word hypocrisy, is; Hollow republican values, completely obscured by blatant propaganda. If you spelled it correctly; You get a truckload of government swag that's to die for + solvency for life to keep you keeping on.

[Angry Dragon]

79. K&R

[Jack Sprat]

83. What did he mean by that last quip?.

“People are quick to say with their mouth full, ‘Well, the American farmer is on the dole,’ ” Fincher said. “But a loaf of bread is two bucks when it could be 10 bucks. I know what it is with the government in my business. We would be all for not having government in our business, but we need a fair system."



I don't know anything about farm subsidies and never have. Was the teabagger implying that without gov't subsidies, farmers could raise wheat prices arbitrarily to cost us $10 bucks a loaf? What does this mean? Do farmers get subsidized routinely for this kind of money by the federal government? Why? 250K a year? I don't get it. Does the government have to bribe the farmers for some reason?

[Mojeoux]

84. K&R