Washington (CNN) - Rep. Michele Bachmann, a potential Republican presidential candidate, is taking issue with Michelle Obama over the first lady's recent promotion of breast-feeding.
Speaking to conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham Tuesday, the Minnesota Republican said Obama's efforts to promote breast-feeding and the IRS's announcement that nursing supplies that aide in the practice can be deducted from tax returns amounts to a "new definition [of] the nanny state."
"This is very consistent with where the hard left is coming from," Bachmann told Ingraham. "For them, government is the answer to every problem."
"I've given birth to five babies and I breast fed every single one of these babies," she added. "To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies? You wanna talk about the nanny state, I think you just got a new definition."
The comments come on the heels of Obama's recent contention that breast-feeding can play a key role in reducing childhood obesity.
"We also want to focus on the important touch points in a child's life. And what we're learning now is that early intervention is key. Breastfeeding. Kids who are breastfed longer have a lower tendency to be obese," Obama told a group of reporters last week, according to Politics Daily.
"Breastfeeding is a very personal choice for every woman," Kristina Schake, a spokeswoman for Obama, later said. "We are trying to make it easier for those who choose to do it."
It's not the first time Obama has faced ire from the right when it comes to childhood nutrition. Sarah Palin told Ingraham last fall that "the first lady cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat."
From CNN Politics
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As always, you can count on the Tea Party freaks to ridicule any measure that would improve health and/or quality of life for Americans who do not belong to the financial elite.
this lady is a total idiot, and another like Sarah Palin....o.k.....she should stay home and cook for her hubby....instead of talking senseless and brainless....
Who's the idiot, Michelle, or the people who elected her?
Wow! how low can this woman sink? attacking someone who's trying to make this a healthier country and helping babies. Bachmann is the perfect example of how the 'right' just hates everyhthing the Obamas do, regardless of how good it is. if Michelle saved a drowning baby, this nutjob would find a way to make it sound like she killed it.
What in the world is wrong with this woman? Now she's against mothers nursing? Or against tax deductions? It is a sorry individual who constantly defines their beliefs by what her "enemies" are for aor against. If Obama opted to support the GOP spending cuts as is (which he shouldn't), she'd do a double axel trying to explain why she's now against them. Pathetic.
Michelle Bachman is in the news again! Why, WHYYYYYYYYYYYY? (Also, why is she such a bimbo?)
Huh? We allow all sorts of deductions to try to encourage certain behavior.... Corporations get thousands of them. I guess it's not ok if it might help children.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. Now this is really something from the right to comment on. Please Bachman,,,,,run for President,,Please
Shut up already!!!
Go to ANY Wal-Mart for five minutes, walk around, check out the median size and fitness of your fellow shoppers, then come back and tell me that Americans don't need any guidelines as to how to take care of themselves.
No, the gov't doesn't buy her a breast pump, they just give her hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in farm subsidies. Which would you rather get? Hypocrite. Beyond hypocrite.
The next election is for the Republicans to lose - however, if they cannot contain the nut cases, such as Ms. Bachmann, then it will be a race. Given the total disarray the government finds itself in, one would think that she could find something more pertinent to comment on. Sad
Michelle Bachmann has a lot of words coming out of her mouth. Too bad she has nothing to say, of any substance. Sounds like her friend up in AK. Are these women trying to make all of us women look incompetent and ignorant?
Nutjob !!
Sarah Palin rev 2.0
What an incredible ditz. Does this "woman" know anything besides being a Palin-wannabe? Or is she a he hiding behind a dress? Go Away, Big Mouth; breast feeding is as old as the world. Only in this repressed, male-dominated monotheistic society do we have such a fear and hatred of birth, the processes of birth, and the wonderful experience of breastfeeding and the healthful benefits of both for mother and child.
I fully support Mrs Obama in her initiatives to get this country healthier, encourage breastfeeding among women who choose to do it, and yes, why the heck shouldn't breast feeding supplies be tax deductible? Besides, I thought Republicans love tax breaks!! If we didn't make it tax deductible then breast feeding would be a jobs killer!
Bachmann, you are a complete idiot. Government encouragement of healthy eating habits for infants is not something that should be criticized and turned into something offensive, just to score political points. It is you who should be ashamed of yourself for your outrage over this. It's okay for government to give big tax breaks to companies to kill our jobs...that's American entrepreneurship...but tax breaks for supplies to raise healthy children is a bad thing? I think your straight jacket needs tightening.
What a couple of out of touch airheads! I breast fed my 3 children,also. And I was very grateful to the state for providing me with a breast pump when my little premie was unable to nurse from the breast.So I pumped and took it to her at the hospital. That would not have happened as I was unable to afford a pump on my own. I needed and appreciated every bit of help the government gave me.
My God! Bachmann is reproducing!!!!!
Bachmann is against tax deductions. Good for her.
I'm starting to wonder if the majority of republicans are mentally unstable. These people would not constantly spout this nonsense if their constituents didn't agree.
The science supports the First Lady, Sorry Michelle.
I have no problem with women deducting nursing supplies if it helps them breastfeed their babies. Breastfed babies have been shown to be healthier. In the long run, it saves the US tax payer money.
I have a much bigger issue with the Republicans supporting and pushing for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, when we as a nation face our largest debt ever thanks to GWB's ill-conceived wars. Democracy in Egypt took 18 days–nonviolence. 300 killed. Democracy in Iraq is approaching 10 years with hundreds of thousands killed and trillions of US dollars.
Maybe Michelle Obama should come out in favor of apple pie and baseball just to watch these dingbats be against it. They just slammed motherhood because she is for it.
Michele Bachmann is a national embarrassment. Come to think of it, the far right as it manifests itself in the Tea Party is a national embarrassment.
Why does the media persist in giving her "press?"
Really? This is what Michelle Bachmann is up in arms about? Why isn't she more concerned about the fact that many of US children are hungry? Or the fact that obesity is rapidly becoming the number one cause of death in Americans. I know this because I am obese and struggle with it every day. To all you congressman and women. why don't you concentrate on what is ailing our country instead of trying to score political points off one another. Although I don't agree with a lot of what the Tea Party has done, they have shown us the way. Elected officials be warned. US citizens are just about sick and tired of you all.