Bachmann delivers Tea Party response to State of the Union
Washington (CNN) – Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, chair of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, delivered a Tea Party-style, red-meat conservative rebuttal sharply criticizing President Barack Obama's State of the Union Tuesday.
Bachmann's remarks followed the official Republican response to the president by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, but the Minnesota Republican told CNN after the address that the Tea Party Express invited her to give a response the State of the Union last month, and denied that her response was meant to compete with Ryan's.
"Unfortunately, this last weekend, the media decided to create a fiction to make it look like we were in competition with one another. We aren't at all," Bachmann said. "Actually what's happened is, in the last election, we saw that the Tea Party supported many Republican candidates. And we had a very large coalition. So the Tea Party and the Republican Party have actually worked together in many different occasions. Although the Tea Party is neither Republican or Democrat, they came alongside the Republicans in the last election."
The speech was aimed at issues dear to the hearts of Tea Party activists including government spending, the economy and the health care reform law signed by Obama. Armed with charts tracking the national debt and unemployment, Bachmann blasted Obama for adding $3.1 trillion to the national debt, a figure critics would argue is the result of efforts to prop up the economy.
"Unfortunately, the President's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money," she said, pointing to a national unemployment rate that continued rising through the president's first two years in office.
"But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country," Bachmann said.
She focused on the health care reform law that she continually referred to as "Obamacare."
"In the end, unless we fully repeal ObamaCare, a nation that currently enjoys the world's best healthcare may be forced to rely on government-run coverage that will have a devastating impact on our national debt for generations to come," Bachmann said.
According to Bachmann, the Obama administration's economic policies are so bad that a miracle is needed to turn the situation around. She then added that "the creation of this nation was a miracle." She equated the famous Marine assault on Iwo Jima during World War II to the effort required to get the national debt under control.
"The perilous battle that was fought in the pacific, at Iwo Jima, was a battle against all odds, and yet the image of the young GIs in the incursion against the Japanese immortalizes their victory. These six young men raising the flag came to symbolize all of America coming together to beat back a totalitarian aggressor," she said. "Our current debt crisis we face today is different, but we still need all of us to pull together. We can do this."
With no moron from Wasilla trying to upstage the president I guess we had to put up with the stooge from the Land of Lakes spouting off her ignorant comments.
This woman is sick!!! and she needs urgent help, ""Unfortunately, the President's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money," she said, pointing to a national unemployment rate that continued rising through the president's first two years in office". UNLESS YOU ARE A MORON! YOU CAN REALIZE THAT, ITS THE Bachmanns' of AMERICA WHO DUG THAT DEEP HOLE IN OUR ECONOMY THROUGH CORPORATE WELFARE. This former ambulance chaser is always wrong no wonder she hates the health care reforms because there is no more room for ambulance chasers!!!!
Yeah we know, Michele, "if you get sick please die quickly".
What do you republicans have against health care?
Oh that's right, how sillly of me to forget...yours is paid for with taxpayer dollars for the rest of your life
Rep. Bachmann's speech was laughably written in a perversion of English, hopefully to seem "folksy," although probably out of ignorance, presumably by her as no truly professional writer would take that out of his typewriter or printer, and the photograph accompanying this report indicates that she does her own Botox, makeup, and hair.
Rep. Bachmann is not ready for television.
She should remember as to who got us in the mess we are in. It certainly was not OBAMA. Most of the deficit was caused by Military spending on illegal wars, giving tax breaks to the super rich, bailing out Republican owned Banks, the Auto Industry and Insurance Mega corporations etc. So why blame the deficit on Obama, when its the lying REPUBLICANS who profited from bailouts. They took bailouts in one hand and slapped Obama with the other hand.
Ignorance! America has the best healthcare in the world? Where do we place Canadian Heallthcare System? What positions do we place Swedish and Norwegian Healthcare systems? Before the so called Obamacare, America's healthcare system was one of the most exploitative among Developed Countries. I guess Ms Bachmann needs to do some research next time she is given this onerous responsibility of issuing a parallel response to that of her party.
I can't beleive she can even breath and chew gum at the same time. Ever wonder what happened to the upper midwest?? Just look at the two idiots and their stupid fear monguring ! what a JOKE!
More looney tunes history just like crazy Glen Beck. The hate and lies echo chamber.
I see CNN has a new BIMBO (ignorant but cutesy) to promote. Geeeessh guys – keep your personal preferences off the political ticker. The crap from Palin wasn't enough?? Now you add this ignorant ditz??
This woman is a right-wing wacko. Why in the world is she getting coverage at all? The "tea party" is a loose amalgamation of the same strident screamers that would like to move the USA back to the 19th century when kids 12 years old worked in coal mines.
More lies from the GOBP's screaming weasel. America, unfortunately, is not even close to having the world's best healthcare. It's a shame the nutjobs and rightwing cultists are unable or unwilling to acknowledge the obvious.
I call her sourface Michelle who doesn't have a single original idea. I am so surprised that Minnesotans keep electing her. I thought they were smarter than that.
The chart used to show the debt Obama has created should be displayed everywhere for the hard working legal citizens of the United States to see. Obama and the 23 Senators up for election in 2012 better understand their jobs are on the line they will be replaced.
We are at depression levels of employment in America our government debt is at crisis levels.
Here what it takes to fix the state of the union:
Repealing every law passed by the last Democratic-controlled congress!
Repealing every regulation put into place by the Obama administration!
Remove every “zar” put into place by the Obama administration!
Getting the government out of private companies and our lives and pockets!
Cut taxes!
Close the border!
End ear marks!
It’s time for the new Congress to investigate, prosecute and put these people in prison.
The very fact she said we have the finest healthcare system shows that she doesn't have a clue. Yes, we do have the finest healthcare, but only to those who can afford it. If it was available to everyone, why are there 45 million uninsured?
I can not begin to tell you how happy I am to no longer live in Minnesota.
Shame on CNN for giving this crazy woman a national stage. Let her play to the FOX Noise crowd. The rest of us want sanity, not wild-eyed crazy in our face.
WHY CNN, WHY? You gave this loon credit by broadcasting it. WHY? First she lied the whole thing was a lie, to say that before 2008 that things were good, what world was she living in and to then blame this administration for any of that, and not see the failed 8 yrs prior, its mis-information/lies. This is the same women that before the horrible shooting was most extreme in here hate speech, yet now she is so important that she gets free air time? All I know is that Obama is trying to move this country into the future, the teaparty and most the right want it to go back or stay the same, we cant live that way any longer. The world is overtaking us and unless we stop this BS and start fixing this mess by moving forward we are all doomed. Its just a fact, so take it how you want but going back or keeping things the same will not work.
How much would it cost taxpayers to repeal Her!!!! What do you think about that idea!!! This message only appeals to Smart People!!! She will never do crap for anybody making under a million a year!!!! Get smart people,wake up!!!!!
Not for nothing, but the image of Iwo Jima was staged, and the battle continued for several weeks after that. In other words, it was a media fiction. She picked a bad metaphor.
My greatest complaint about the SotU speech is that Obama completely failed to address the plague of illegal immigration.
Bachman is so extreme and polarizing, she actually makes whacky Christine O'Donnell (former Delaware Senate candidate) look downright mainstream. As a Libertarian/Democrat, I share some of the Tea Party's concerns. However, the movement is not well-served when it chooses someone like her to represent it on such an important night.
In the new era of civility, I'll hold back much of what I'd like to say about Ms. Bachman and her speech. Let's just leave it at that there are many untruths in her comments about healthcare, and that overall she is an idiot.
How does 50 million uninsured Americans enjoy the best health care in the world ? My Dad told me to never trust any person that can't look at you when when they are talking to you.