Can anyone verify the childhood poverty of Joni Ernst?

[TexasProgresive]

I just don't buy it. It's like the old politicians who grew up in a log cabin. I think she is lying through her perfectly straight teeth. No internet search I did came up with anything. So Ernst was valedictorian, a member of the cheer squad, and was elected band queen all the while wearing bread wrappers to protect her camo pumps from pig blood while castrating.

Where did this drama queen come from?

[tularetom]

1. I did a little research and found this

[ND-Dem]

37. lol steve martin making fun of poor people

[merrily]

2. If the Lincoln campaign faked his being born in a log cabin, I'd rather not know.

And posts around DU say she was not poor.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. Abraham Lincoln gets to gild the lily.

Our side does it too...

Pat Moynihan said he grew up in Hell's Kitchen, perhaps to give him a gritty, tough guy persona, when he actually spent little time there.

But Ernst seemed, imho, totally over the top.

[merrily]

13. OMG, he had gold, too?

I hear Hell's Kitchen is pretty nice now anyway.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I forgot his biography but I believe he grew up in Oklahoma./NT

[merrily]

18. Just taking the briefest of looks at his wiki, he was

born in Kentucky spent his earliest years there, then the family moved to Indiana.

I read Sandburg's two volume bio of Lincoln when I was in elementary school, but I don't remember a thing from it. Did make a huge fan of Lincoln, though. Kid crush that I never got over. Same thing happened when I read of bio of Babe Ruth. Then I moved to Massachusetts. (Curse of the Bambino)

My reference to gold, though, was a response to your comment about gilding the lily.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. I was talking about Pat Moynihan./NT

[merrily]

23. Ah. Born in Tulsa, moved to NYC at the age of 6.

Church, which also functioned as a polling place, was in Hell's Kitchen. High school in East Harlem. Spent summers at his grandparents in Indiana.

What are the odds? The only two bios I've looked at today are Lincolns and Moynihan's and they both have an Indiana connection.

[TexasProgresive]

14. I would like to read accounts from people who knew her in school

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

3. It is like her lie about being combat veteran, she was combat adjacent at best

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/dct/article_75aea20c-54b1-11e4-b812-cf4aa783e9fb.html

Joni Ernst claims to be a “Combat Veteran." That claim implies that her mission was to actively engage the enemy in combat. However, Mrs. Ernst is not a member of any “combat arms” unit.

[niyad]

7. her military career:

Military career

Ernst is a lieutenant colonel in the logistics branch and currently commands the 185th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion at Camp Dodge, the largest battalion in the Iowa Army National Guard.[11][12] As of 2014, Ernst had served 21 years between the Army Reserve and the National Guard. She spent 14 months in Kuwait in 2003-2004 as a company commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom.[9][13][14]

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Ernst

[TexasProgresive]

8. Her husband is a retired command sargent major

So did an officer make whoopee with an NCO. The only way they could have married had to be both were enlisted or one not in the army. Yes the regs applied to the Nat Guard.

[notadmblnd]

4. Sarah Palin- version 1.2

[merrily]

6. Worse. Palin didn't get elected to federal office.

(Sorry Alaskans. I feel your pain. I really do. But, when it comes to Palin, keep her.)

[niyad]

5. from another du op:

Welfare For Me, Not For Thee: Joni Ernst Edition...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026116515
http://www.readingisforsnobs.com/2015/01/welfare-for-me-not-for-thee-joni-ernst.html

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

more at link...

[TexasProgresive]

9. That'll buy a lot of bread bags. n/t

[Fawke Em]

34. So, not only is she lying about her family's wealth, she's

also partly responsible for the nation's obesity and diabetes problems.

[benld74]

10. I just saw her old bread bags for sale on Ebay,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[GreatGazoo]

11. I didn't watch it all but I didn't hear her say she grew up poor, only that she had, at one time,

only one good pair of shoes, hence the "bread bags."

As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm. I worked construction with my dad. To save for college, I worked the morning biscuit line at Hardees.

We were raised to live simply, not to waste. It was a lesson my mother taught me every rainy morning.

You see, growing up, I had only one good pair of shoes. So on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them...

Our parents may not have had much, but they worked hard for what they did have.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/gop-response-transcript-joni-ernst-gop-response-114423.html#ixzz3PTrKRbNw

She implies it but it isn't there. In that last sentence, she first lumps in everyone else on that Iowa school bus -- "our parents." Then, parsing, she hedges -- "MAY not have had much" -- or maybe they did. It is carefully worded perhaps for effect.

[BlueCaliDem]

15. "Our parents may not have had much, but they worked hard for what they did have."

Oh yeah, man! Those Gov't subsidies are a bitch to apply for. Very hard work.

[Avalux]

20. I'm thinking the same thing you are.

We've been parsing words about whether or not Joni was poor as a child because of the way she framed the story. But she never actually said she was poor. I bet her parents were just really frugal - and that probably came out of Depression era necessity.

Keeping that in mind - her parents didn't think Joni needed more than one pair of GOOD shoes. As you point out, she never said she only had one pair of shoes. Her words were "one pair of good shoes". So if it rained, and she wanted to wear her GOOD shoes to school, her mother covered them with bread bags so they wouldn't get ruined. Has nothing to do with being poor.

[oldandhappy]

26. Children grow quickly.

Most of us only had one pair of good shoes at a time when I was growing up.

[DawgHouse]

21. She is saying that she and her classmates

grew up with what they needed and they worked hard for it. They were thrifty. Her meme is basically that they did it on their own and so can everyone else.

I don't think she's claiming Grapes of Wrath poverty but she's not out there trying to correct that assumption, either.

[GreatGazoo]

24. their farm is/was "several hundred acres" of corn, soy and 100 hogs

At $7,500 per acre and assuming that "several hundred" means ~300 acres, that is $2.2 mil for the land alone. Tractors, buildings, houses, and other gear could add another million easily.

Wonder how much they got in Federal government subsidies for the corn and soy -- probably doesn't fit her narrative.

[niyad]

43. see post 5

[jmowreader]

33. I'm not really reading poverty into that

She was born in 1970 which makes her seven years younger than me. In small towns at the time, only having one pair of good shoes was how everyone rolled. How many do you need?

Ten to one she had a pair of "good shoes" to wear to school, a pair of "outside sports" shoes for softball day in gym class, "inside sports" shoes for basketball, and work boots for her ag work.

[beam me up scottie]

35. Excellent point.

You're probably right, I had a pair of suede shoes, sneakers for sports, barn boots and snow boots. And they usually lasted until I outgrew them, we didn't get new shoes every time the styles changed.

I went barefoot whenever I could get away with it.

[kentuck]

17. Charles Pierce says she was a child during the Reagan years.

I guess it didn't trickle down to her?

[xocet]

19. Stanton, IA - not Red Oak, IA.... n/t

[TexasProgresive]

28. I didn't meantion either town

She lived in Red Oak high school in Stanton.

[xocet]

36. True, you did not.

If you want to talk to anyone who knew her growing up, you would have to check in Stanton - not Red Oak. By high school, most people drove to school, so bus riding would likely have been exclusively for earlier grades. Red Oak is just the county seat - pop. about 5000. Stanton is about 8 miles from Red Oak and then had a population of about 730 or so. 25 was a large class back then, so there are probably about 30-40 people who you could actually approach to get the answers that you want. Good luck finding anyone with specific information.

[oldandhappy]

25. yes, someone paid for her orthodontia work

Her teeth are too perfect!

[Terra Alta]

40. yes, and they are so WHITE, too.

While watching her speech, I couldn't get over how white her teeth were. Seriously, is anyone's teeth that white? They're almost blinding.

[elleng]

27. ?

Ernst was born Joni Kay Culver in Montgomery County, Iowa, the daughter of Marilyn and Richard Culver.[6] She was valedictorian of her class at Stanton High School.[7] Ernst earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Iowa State University,[8] and a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbus College.[7][9] While in college, Ernst took part in an agricultural exchange to the Soviet Union.[10]

[TexasProgresive]

29. Does that bio which is all over the internet

tell us the details of her growing up, you know, castrating, plowing, doing without?

[elleng]

30. No, it doesn't.

[Politicalboi]

31. From the Manchurian Candidate

Joni Ernst is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

[Capt. Obvious]

32. #BREADBAGSGATE

[ecstatic]

42. Baghazi

[Generic Brad]

38. That's like using an ironing board as a dinner table

It sounds like a rich person's idea of what poor people do - except they don't.

[ND-Dem]

39. +100

[WillyT]

41. K & R !!!