Posted on 06/28/2011 7:41:48 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
While Rep. Michele Bachmann has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the "welfare rolls," the mental health clinic run by her husband has been collecting annual Medicaid payments totaling over $137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005, according to new figures obtained by NBC News.
The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The $161,000 in payments from the Minnesota Department of Human Services to her husband's clinic appear to contradict some of Michelle Bachmann's public accounts this week when she was first asked about the extent to which her family has benefited from government aid. Contacted this afternoon, Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for Bachmann, said the congresswoman was doing campaign events and was not immediately available for comment.
[...]
When asked by anchor Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" about the story's assertion that her husband's counseling clinic had also gotten federal and state funds, Bachmann replied that it was "one-time training money that came from the federal government. And it certainly didn't help our clinic."
At another point, she said, "My husband and I did not get the money," adding that it was "mental health training money that went to the employees."
But state records show that Bachmann & Associates has been collecting payments under the Minnesota's Medicaid program every year for the past six years. Karen Smigielski, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, said the state's Medicaid program is funded "about 50-50" with federal and state monies.
(Excerpt) Read more at openchannel.msnbc.msn.com ...
I am not a real supporter of Bachmann, I don’t know enough about her myself, because I have not taken the time to find out. She has some conservative sounding values, and I like that.
But what I do know is that this is a hatchet attack, pure and simple. And anytime a conservative candidate gets the axe treatment from the MSM, the stock of that candidate only goes up, IMO.
So what? If you treat Medicaid patients you get paid by Medicaid. If you treat Medicare patients you get paid by Medicare. The whole thing is BS. This is the beginning of the smear of Michelle Bachmann by the MSM. Dont’ buy into it.
I'm a CONSERVATIVE. I don't like lying;especially needless lying. And I guarantee you, that IF Palin, who yes, is my choice, begins telling whoopers, for no reason, I'll call her out on it as well.
I make an excellent politics watcher, is what I do, so stuff the rest of that steaming pile.
Goldman Sachs got 250 billion to hand out to their foreign friends.....crickets.
Bachmann claimed that the money was a ONE TIME THING and that the clinic got never went to the clinic, but instead, when to some of the staff for “training”; I heard her say this. This is a lie, a falsehood, a whatever you care to call it. She never once mentioned medicare in that interview I saw.
The question I have is, did she lie about getting a Medicare grant to train employees?
If she said she doesn’t believe in accepting money from the federal government in the form of grants or things like that, and DID, then she might be fairly accused of hypocrisy.
But that does not make her a liar. If we are going to tar someone, we should do it accurately, there is nothing wrong with tarring someone who deserves it.
If she said she never received ANY grants and got one, or she said she ONLY got that single grant, but received more, then, yes. That would be a lie.
But is that what she did?
And what is more, the fact that NBC is trying to paint accepting Medicare payments for services as somehow nefarious (when it isn’t) really raises my hackles.
” And I guarantee you, that IF Palin, who yes, is my choice...”
If Bachmann wins the nomination for Republican Prez, will you support Bachmann?
For the record, the medicare thing is brand new to me right here on this thread and I think it is an is-a-cough hit piece as worthless as he is.
What she vehemently denied was getting ANY government money for their clinic, except for a onetime training grant for employees. That was absolutely false, and her own financial disclosure forms prove it. She also said that she received “not one penny” from the farm that belonged to her father-in-law, which was ALSO shown on her OWN financial disclosure forms to be a lie.
BOTH of these things were legitimate. It was the lies that I didn’t, and still don’t, understand. Was she afraid to admit that she took advantage of legitimate government subsidies and programs because her rhetoric to conservatives had been so strongly against these very things that she felt they would abandon her for the truth?
I think that might be possible. But no matter the reason, the proof that she lied is out there, and it can’t help but hurt her in the long run. She should have said exactly what it was, a perfectly legal transaction that any tax lawyer worth their salt would have taken advantage of.
There's absolutely NOTHING whatsoever "wrong" nor hypocritical about getting Medicare money for treatment, so why lie about it? Anyone calling her a "hypocrite" over that, could easily be put in his.her place and be made to look the idiot. But this isn't how Bachmann has handled matters.
Show it all. I want the entire thing. I could care less about your “memory”!
The original 'gotcha' is that ridiculous...
I will NOT vote for Romney, Huntsman, Paul, and Cain. Pawlenty? I can't see him winning the nomination, I'd rather not have to hold my nose again, when I vote, and he may also wind up on my NO list.
Another 4 years of Obama means the end of this once great nation; however, our field doesn't engender, in me, any hope of them turning anything around.
Would you please post the links to the interview where the questions were asked and the replies given.
Complete so we don’t have out of context problems.
Also the financial statemtns that reference farm income.
When you perform services for Medicare, you are not "getting money from the government". The government is getting services from YOU at a discount. You do know that doing valid (not fraudulent) services paid for by Medicare is not a profitable venture, don't you?
As for her statements on her farm, that isn't my issue. What is my issue is this hit piece.
Then I suggest you go badk over the many recent threads that discuss these very things with links to all the proof your heart desires. It’s right here on Free Republic...many times already. IF you would rather insist WE prove it without seeing the proof I just told you has been posted multiple time right here, then your complaints hold no water. So try this. PROVE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. Okay?
The fact that all of what I have posted has also been all over FR, for a long time and you don't know about, is what?
Go look it all up, for all I care. I'm correct, the facts are out there, and denying these facts is as bad as lying.
Some of that is on this thread and it’s been all over FR. Go look for it.
Excuse me for butting in, but I follow FR pretty carefully and I have seen none of the information you refer to.
For instance, I have not seen her financial statement on FR.
Nor have I seen the interview where there was any reference to payments from the feds. I did hear an interview on the radio where the payments for training employees was discussed. I also heard on that same program the reference to the farm, but I have seen no financial information referencing the farm.
But be that as it may, as a courtesy to those who do not follow every single post on FR, be kind enough to post links.
If he is required to take this money, then this is a non-story.
///
even if he wasn’t required to, it would be a non-story.
medicaid doesn’t pay enough to hard-working doctors.
“Medicaid payments are for services rendered.”
THIS MAKES ME RESPECT HER HUSBAND MORE.
NO ONE here is saying anything bad about him! but he is NOT the point!!!
“one time” money, = “every year for 6 years ?
$50,0000 = “not a penny” ?
...it IS a story, because Bachmann again, was wrong at best, and lied at worst.
she now has REPEATEDLY shown she has an “accuracy problem”.
(and she is NOT stupid. she is a TAX ATTORNEY.)
added to her coming out fiasco, with her own words about John Wayne coming from Waterloo when he DIDN’T (but Gacy DID live there...), the music Rollins apparently didn’t check the license for, Lexington and Concord gaffe, and her
wrongly accusing obama of using ALL of our strategic oil reserve, etc.
well, remember the MSM saying Obama shows executive experience from running such a great campaign?
Bachmann was a LOT better, BEFORE she started listening to Rollins.
WHY she hired a loser like Rollins, i don’t know.
maybe because:
“ ...where questioning her decisions draws suspicion of disloyalty. She’s described as meticulous and worried about the finer details, such as soundtracks played to pump up rally crowds.
Ms. Bachmann has experienced frequent top-level staff changes in her congressional office since 2007. She’s had six chiefs of staff in four years, five press secretaries, five legislative directors and three communications directors. “
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/michele-bachmanns-flair-tea-party-clout-could-derail-romneys-gop-hopes/article2059800/singlepage/#articlecontent
i LIKE Herman Cain. i think he is a TRUE Tea Party Conservative. He’s not a tax lawyer, He’s not a politician, and hasn’t been in Washington for years.
...but, if he did the SAME things as Bachmann, i’d be honest enough, to say the SAME things.
(in fact, i’d be harsher. unlike Obamabots, or some Bachmann supporters, i hold my candidates to a higher standard.)
...Bachmann IS a nice lady. she HELPED raise 23 foster kids, for 7 years.
she IS a good conservative.
she is a GOOD person. and if she’d DUMP ROLLINS,
maybe i’d consider voting for her again.
But she simply is NOT showing what i need in a President, to undo the Obama nightmare.
.
The MSM had to LIE and INVENT things about Palin.
Bachmann is saying and doing these things HERSELF.
.
I respectfully ask her supporters, to be honest, and vett her for her gaffes the same as they would if if Gingrich or Romney did the SAME thing.
I thought Liberals have double-standards and hypocrisy, not Conservatives.
Bachmann is a good person. I’m not making personal attacks against her. I’m simply pointing out she’s not perfect.
yet people here are making PERSONAL attacks, on people who are pointing out honest concerns, about REAL gaffes by Bachmann.
...why are you attacking us?
We ALL winced, at Gingrich having a .5 million account at Tiffany’s.
HOW would you react, if Gingrich said he didn’t get a penny for something, that was on his tax return for $50,000 ?
(and Gingrich, is NOT a tax attorney...)
Why does Bachman get a pass on gaffes, but Gingrich, Romney, Cain, Pawlenty, don’t? Because she’s a woman?
Just as Obama is PRESIDENT now, because people ignored his gaffes because he is black?
... if conservatives here don’t care, if she makes multiple statements that are factually untrue if not outright lies, then how are we any better than Obama supporters?
rlmorel says she hasn’t bothered to learn about Bachmann.
Yet is quick to criticise freepers who HAVE looked at the direct quotes from Bachmann. isn’t this what vetting is?
rlmorel says: “As for her statements on her farm, that isn’t my issue.” - so she doesn’t care, if Bachmann said she didn’t get a penny, but her 2010 tax return shows $50,000 ? ...”mistakes” like that aren’t important,
in the future President of our country?
And, do you want FReepers asking honest vetting questions about this NOW, or the MSM pointing all this out later in the general campaign?
Do you want Obama to WIN in 2012, because we refused to honestly vett?
Oh for G-d’s sake. Can you NOT understand plain English? The medicare thing is brand new to me as of this evening. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that they treat people who are on Medicaid and Medicare. G-d bless ‘em. Someone has to.
It’s the LIES she told. And no, I am NOT going to spend the rest of the night going back over what has already been posted to produce the “proof” you want. Look for the interview she just did with Chris Wallace and listen for yourself. Her financial dislosure forms are online in pdf form. You can find them yourself.
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