Joni Ernst is all about cutting pork. Unless of course that pork puts bacon on her family's table.

So during Senator Ernst's GOP rebuttal to President Obama's SOTU speech, she talked about cutting government spending and her own terribly challenging childhood during which she was forced to wear bread bags on her feet. (I swear I almost teared up.)

However, and I know this will be shocking to some, it seems there may have been a touch of hypocrisy in that rebuttal speech. (I know, right?)


According to a story by The District Sentinel it appears that Ernst family pigs were not the only ones feeding at the trough:  

The truth about her family’s farm roots and living within one’s means, however, is more complex. Relatives of Ernst (née: Culver), based in Red Oak, Iowa (population: 5,568) have received over $460,000 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009. Ernst’s father, Richard Culver, was given $14,705 in conservation payments and $23,690 in commodity subsidies by the federal government–with all but twelve dollars allocated for corn support. Richard’s brother, Dallas Culver, benefited from $367,141 in federal agricultural aid, with over $250,000 geared toward corn subsidies. And the brothers’ late grandfather Harold Culver received $57,479 from Washington—again, mostly corn subsidies—between 1995 and 2001. He passed away in January 2003. 

The Sentinel cross-referenced the Environmental Working Group farm subsidy database with open source information to verify the Culvers’ interest in the Department of Agriculture’s crop support program. 

Sen. Ernst’s family’s financial interest notably came up once during her campaign. In October, Salon reported that Richard’s construction company was awarded $215,665 in contracts from the Montgomery County government in 2009 and 2010, while Ernst was the body’s auditor. The bids won by Culver included Federal Emergency Management Agency projects worth $204,794. 

While Ernst didn’t play a deliberative role in awarding the contracts, Salon reported that strict state ethics laws stipulate for “contracts to be voided if any county ‘officer or employee’ has an interest in the contractor.” County auditors are allowed to solicit contract proposals and publish bid notices, however, and in 2007, Ernst was appointed the county’s chief financial officer overseeing federal and state assistance in the wake of flooding. She held the role while serving as auditor simultaneously.

Shocked! That's what I am, shocked!

From Ernst's rebuttal speech:  

"Our parents may not have had much, but they worked for what they did have." 

Yeah, and the subsidies provided by the government sure made what they did have last a hell of a lot longer, didn't they?