Politicians and actors may have some things in common, but as far as Vicky Hartzler is concerned, it’s just a cryin’ shame that politics isn’t more like show business where no publicity is bad publicity. Think Progress looked into Vicky Hartzler’s  background and found that the self-described “lifelong farmer and a small town girl” had received “$774,325 in federal subsidies from 1995 to 2009.” Nothing wrong there – unless, like Hartzler, you tell a conservative radio host that “we just want the government to leave us alone here in Missouri’s 4th.” It seems that Hartzler’s slogan is no government interference except when it comes to taxpayer financed farm subsidies. Isn’t this what they call biting the hand that feeds you?

To her credit, Hartzler, as Think Progress notes, seems to knows that there are some people out there who might consider her stance hypocritical and, consequently, does not mention the subsidies when she discusses agriculture on her Webpage. However, if she did decide to “come out,” she would have plenty of Tea Party and GOP company. It’s hard to count all the Tea Partiers who seem to have their hands out for a hand-out – Joe Miller in Alaska and Sharon Angle in Nevada are two of the more recent cases to come to light. Steve Benen, on the topic of Tea Partiers’ proclivity for government welfare, summed  it up beautifully:

For the right-wing crowd, subsidies for 32 million Americans with no health insurance is outrageous, but subsidies for conservative farmers is not an issue “at all.