Ethics

Regular Joe Mitt Meets Regular Joe Farmer

Well, not really.

Most farmers do not own 54 farms or live in a home shaped like a flying saucer.

Romney had a photo-op with Iowa “farmer” Lemar Koethe. However, Koethe isn’t exactly the rugged down-home farmer struggling to keep his operation going that you might expect.

Or should I say operations — 54 of them. Yes, according to the Des Moines Register, Koethe owns 54 soy and corn farms. And that’s just one of his jobs.

In previous reports on his activity over the years from the Des Moines Register, Koethe is also a described as a millionaire, a real estate mogul, and a former concert promoter who booked acts like Slipknot at his 24,000 square foot event center.

Click thru for a photo of the flying saucer house.

Similarly, the stars of several Romney campaign ads posing as Ma and Pa small business owners, like those featured in his "you didn't build that" line of ads, have been phonies propped up by government contracts.

Being the owner of 54 soy and corn farms, Koethe is also undoubtedly an indirect beneficiary of the SNAP program. Roughly 16 cents of every dollar spent on food stamps by the government benefits farmers according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. And that's not all.

via Stephen Lacy of ThinkProgress

[A]ccording to figures from the EWG Farm Subsidies database, Koethe has received $130,575 in conservation payments from the federal government. Conservation payments, which add up to about $5 billion in federal spending each year, are typically used by the government to encourage farmers not to grow crops — sometimes to stabilize prices and sometimes to preserve land.

That socialized, big government cash is so hard to resist.

Meanwhile, Team Romney complains about distortions.