Vicky Hartzler on her farm subsidies: Everybody does it (even if they don’t)

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U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler sympathizes with tea-party activists who gripe about government spending. At the same time, she and her husband have collected around $775,000 in federal farm subsidies during the last 15 years.

What allows Hartzler to hold these seemingly incompatible positions? A false reality, for one thing. “We do participate in the government programs, like probably 95 percent of farmers do,” the congresswoman told The Hill in a recent interview. In fact, most farmers do not receive direct assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.