Just weeks before she called for “breaking up” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “so that the encumbered taxpayer no longer backs them,” Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann received a $417,000 loan to purchase a 5200 square-foot golf-course home that experts say was definitely backed by one of the two lenders:
Seeing problems with the programs — especially the high costs to taxpayers — hasn’t stopped a concerned public or other members of Congress from taking advantage of the lower interest rates that come due to government backing.
Bachmann’s mortgage was part of a package of debt that she and her husband, Marcus, assumed to buy their home, public records show. They also have other loans, including a home equity line of credit, a business mortgage and another business loan for their Christian counseling clinics, bringing their liabilities to more than $1 million, according to the most recently available public records.
The Bachmanns’ assets, according to her latest financial disclosure statement, range between $862,018 and $2 million.
Bachmann’s campaign is predicated on her having a pristine reputation on the issues (especially among social conservatives) so she can build her policy credibility and tack to the center, at least rhetorically; botches like this — and the recently reported acceptance of Medicaid (welfare!) by her husband’s clinics — threaten her reputation of ideological purity.
