The Truth About Joni Ernst

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

24 January 15

ell, this was predictable.

The truth about her family's farm roots and living within one's means, however, is more complex. Relatives of Ernst (n�e: 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.

Somebody should have gotten to my new friend Senator Joni and hipped her to this kind of thing. First of all, the SOTU response is inevitably a disaster, no matter who gives it. Second, if you're going to go heavy on the Little House on the Prairie stuff, it's best that the country already know, at least in part, that your family needed Uncle Sugar to stop on by and help with the bills. And, third, damn, $450G's buys a lot of Wonder Bread. She wasn't bad the other night. She was just silly.