Minnesota journalist Pat Kessler fact checks political ads during election season. Summary of his findings one of the latest political ads by the Bachmann campaign:
"Tarryl Clark is at it again. Not telling the truth about Michele Bachmann's record," the ad begins. "Michele led the fight in Congress to
freeze congressional pay." This is TRUE.
Bachmann was front and center on Republican efforts to freeze the pay of Congress, to stop it from rising to $174,000...
Here's what's NOT said: Bachmann fought the pay hike, but accepted it.
According to Bachmann campaign spokesman Sergio Gor: "The only way she can refuse a salary hike that's become law is to cut a check to the federal treasury."
And that--apparently--is out of the question for Michele Bachmann. Because cutting a check to return funds to the federal government would demonstrate her personal commitment to conservative principle.
(CONTINUED)
Here's Bachmann, speaking on Tea Party principles in US News and World Report:
People have been saying for years that it is not OK to live beyond our means as a nation, approving programs and bureaucracies for which we need to borrow money.
..."but I'm not giving back that federal deficit spending they send ME," she should have added. Because she's not. Here's Bachmann again in US News:
Your average Tea Partyer knows that elections should not be about the lesser of two evils but about principled candidates who will determine whether America survives our current tribulation or whether America becomes unexceptional to the world, just like every other nation. People ask me why that distinction matters. It matters because our forefathers were thinking of all generations of Americans when they left trails of blood in the snow at Valley Forge and when they risked their lives by signing their names on the Declaration of Independence. We are the reason they fought at Gettysburg and stormed the beaches of Normandy.
..."so I am not giving back that pay hike even though I opposed it and it's deficit spending and redistribution of wealth. And I am not giving back the more than $240,000 in farm subsidies that I'm taking from the taxpayers. When I say "principled candidates," I mean candidates who stand against that sort of thing--but keep the taxpayer dollars they say people shouldn't be taking. That stuff about the trails of blood at Valley Forge and the Declaration of Independence and fighting at Gettysburg and the beaches of Normandy, does not apply to the taxpayer dollars that I receive personally, it only applies to taxpayer dollars that other people receive. That is my "principle"--and one I am willing to fight for, unless I really get a lot of grief about the hypocrisy thing from my base. And we all know that ain't gonna happen. So I'm keeping that money."
Anyway: cutting a check to the federal government (to return money she says she shouldn't be getting from the federal government) would be doing something tangible to diminish deficit spending. And no one expects Bachmann to do anything like that. Not even the crackpots in the tea party would demand that kind of integrity.
It would be kind of cool if she did that kind of "return the money I don't think anyone should be getting via redistribution of wealth." But in the end, this kind of stuff is small potatoes. Kessler and other journalists who fact check political ads perform a valuable service and they should keep doing what they're doing.
But calling out Michele Bachmann for hypocrisy on pay hikes for Congress is kind of like "nailing" Mussolini for hypocrisy on fiscal policy. These aren't "the gorilla in the room" issues for these political careers, ya know whut I mean?
http://wcco.com/...
http://politics.usnews.com/...
Next:
Top Ten Craziest Tea Party quotes, featuring a nice picture of Michele...
http://blogs.alternet.org/...
ACTION LINK: ...to Tarryl Clark, cutting her own per diem pay as a state legislator from $18,356 in 2007 to $10,780 in 2009...but no tea party hypocrite (including Bachmann) is going to vote for her because she demonstrated personal integrity.
http://tarrylclark.com