Michele Bachmann's 'House Call' protest cost you $14K

You might think that Michele Bachmann's "House Call" rally last November, railing on the health care reform bill, would have been paid for by some independent group angry about the size and scope of the federal government's power, or the way the federal government keeps finding new ways to waste taxpayers' money while growing the federal deficit.

Actually, taxpayers footed the bill for $14,000. Not that Bachmann broke the law or anything, according to what legal eagles tell the Star Tribune, but some local Tea Party activists are a bit miffed.

Learning that taxpayer funds were used did strike a note of discomfort with Twin Cities Tea Party co-founder Deanna Boss, who arranged for more than 100 Minnesotans to attend the rally. Boss said she would have preferred that private donors had financed the event, given her and other activists' criticism of excessive government spending.

"I mean, we're broke," she said, referring to the national debt. "Every penny counts here.

Your tax dollars at work: