Bachmann in Iowa: ‘America is under attack’
Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm
- 20 Comments
Rep. Michele Bachmann warned guests of an event organized by Iowans for Tax Relief Friday night that America is “under attack” by a “thundercloud of debt weighing upon [the U.S.].”
“What I’m believing is, I think, the truth of where we are in the country,” Bachmann said.
Bachmann, who is openly mulling a run for the Republican presidential nomination, repeatedly discussed with a crowd of around 150 at the downtown Des Moines Marriott Hotel her doubts that the U.S. would continue as a great nation under the policies of the current government.
She said the underlying struggle of America 150 years ago during the Civil War was the issue of slavery and the question of whether all men are created equal. Bachmann described how Americans killed other Americans during the Civil War.
“Fortunately today we don’t face the prospect of an armed violent civil war, but instead we face the question of whether our nation will live to the latest generation is equally great. It’s an underlying issue in the struggle of our time is a slavery of a different kind,” Bachmann said to the crowd, before predicting her slavery comments would be misconstrued by the media.
“Because it is a slavery. It is a slavery that is a bondage to debt and a bondage to decline,” Bachmann went on. “That’s what that slavery entails. It’s the subservience of a sovereign people — we are a sovereign people — to a failed self selected elite. That would be our fate.”
She repeatedly asked the crowd whether the next generation will see a standard of living as high as as the current generations enjoy.
“My faith is with you, the ordinary Iowa citizens,” Bachmann said. “Because for my money, I take ordinary any day of the week over the self-anointed elite.”
Bachmann said the spirit of 1776 woke up for the the 2010 elections.
“You saw what happened right here in Iowa — winning your governor’s seat, winning your Iowa House back, ousting three Supreme Court justices,” Bachmann proclaimed to massive applause from the room. “And don’t think for a moment a lot of justices around this country can’t feel the hot seat now in their own seat because of what Iowa did.”
She chastized the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, as well the large financial institutions, eventually criticizing the reform of the federally subsidized student loan program by falsely claiming the “government completely runs the student loan industry.”
Student loan reform involved the ending of insuring loans made by private banks and instead increasing the loans the government delivers through its direct loan programs. Banks and credit unions still run private student loan programs the same as before. The Congressional Budget Office says student loan reform will save $62 billion over the next decade.
“We saw the passage of socialized medicine,” Bachmann said, later adding it’s “stunning what has occurred in just two years time.”
After her speech, Bachmann was asked by The Iowa Independent to elaborate how health care reform legislation was “socialized medicine,” given the legislation included no government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
“Ultimately the way the program is built, we’ll see a collapse of the private insurance industry,” Bachmann responded. “That’s very important to the Des Moines area because this is a Mecca of insurance industries.”
Indeed, Des Moines does play host to many insurance companies, and is ranked as one of the top insurance centers in the world along with Hartford, Conn. and London, England.
Contrary to her claim, however, more people will get private health coverage thanks to the reforms. The law sets up “exchanges” where private insurers will compete to provide coverage to people who don’t have it. The law also gives tax credits to people who have difficulty affording insurance, an approach that relies on a free market, not socialized medicine.
But she went on in her response to claim health insurance costs are already rising because of the Affordable Care Act.
Larry Levitt, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Minnesota Public Radio that claim is a stretch. Levitt said there have been reports recently of insurers raising premiums significantly, but that’s due to the increase in the cost of health care and the effects of the economic downturn.
Bachmann predicted health care reform, along with the nation’s debt, will remain signifficant issues in 2012, as they were in 2010.
“If we want to kill ‘Obamacare,’ if we want to end socialized medicine it must be done in the next election,” Bachmann said. “It will be our charge to repeal Obama [and to] repeal a very liberal Senate.”
Bachmann also noted the debt under Obama’s tenure is more than the accumulated debt of all 43 previous presidencies.
The truth on that statement is complicated. When U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Obama’s budget would add more to the debt than the outstanding debt of all previous presidents, the Pulitzer-Prize winning website PolitiFact rated it true. However, when Republican state Sen. Chip Rogers of Georgia said the U.S. had accumulated more debt since Obama took office than the total amount of debt accumulated during the first 200 years of the United States existence, it was given a “barely true” rating.
PolitiFact clarified the difference being whether one focused on publicly held debt instead of spending and not limiting the timeline to two years from Obama taking office.
Despite any accuracy of her statements, the crowd was largely impressed with the Minnesota Republican.
Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said Bachmann had a track record of putting people first, calling her the kind of leader the country needs.
“I’m certain there’s a new breath out there of fresh air that is lead by someone like Congresswoman Bachmann,” Failor said.
Ankeny resident Judy McBee said she liked what she heard in Bachmann’s speech and was familiar with Bachmann before the event.
McBee said what she’s heard before about the Congresswoman depended on the source, as McBee felt the national television media would make her seem extreme or a “big mouth.” She admitted sometimes it can get her riled up to get behind politicians like Bachmann when it seemed the media was attacking her.
“We can pretty well recognize who we’re in agreement with and so we will probably support anyway,” McBee said. “But yeah, you might feel more determined, but we kind of do that anyway to those we’re in agreement with.”
20 Comments
Comment posted January 22, 2011 @ 2:03 pm
Go on her facebook page. The people who follow her are militant right wingers who agree with her armed and dangerous statement to the extreme.
Comment posted January 22, 2011 @ 3:19 pm
Project much? Yes it is, but from the christianist Teal-liban and their “God’s Law” Koch-suckers like herself. The richest 1% of adults control 43% of the world’s assets; the wealthiest 10% have 83%. The bottom 50% have only 2%. This suggests a huge disparity of influence. The wealthiest tenth control the vast bulk of the world’s capital, giving them a lot of say in funding businesses, charities and politicians. The bottom 50% control hardly any capital at all.
Comment posted January 22, 2011 @ 6:19 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Fascists:_The_Christian_Right_and_the_War_on_America
Comment posted January 22, 2011 @ 7:53 pm
Re Write History much Michele?? Maybe you should take a look at why the 1776 Boston Tea Party actually happened.. It was a protest on a The British East India Tea Company.. The corporate TAX that they were supposed to pay was passed on to the consumer.. Thus in protest tons of tea was dumped into the Boston Harbor by angry Americans… The result was that the British East India Company had to PAY THEIR FRIKKIN CORPORATE TAXES.. Not ONE bullet was fired nor was there ANY violence..
Not like Your Nut Ball Tea Bag Fruit Cake Christianists !
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
America is under attack by the blind faith Nuzis masquerading as patriots and Christians – of which they are neither. The Reich Wing is dangerous and the propaganda, hate and fear campaigns are bring America down. You do remember the 8 year nightmare called GW Bush don’t you?! Please remove this woman from office!!
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
She really is clueless, but I assume she knows her constituents or followers don’t read.
The debt she talks about came from her party and their mistakes – the Republicans. She’s nuzi.
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 2:14 pm
“Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said Bachmann had a track record of putting people first, calling her the kind of leader the country needs.”
1. I have never heard even a rumor that she had ever put people first.
2. If Bachmann had been elected in 2008, we would be in a Great Depression that we could never hope to recover from. Not only would we have gone from leader of the free world to laughing-stock, we would be lucky to still exist as a country.
People like Bachmann have no respect for the role of government in a state or country. They would proudly drag us down below critical mass, while claiming to be patriots.
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
How many foster children have you taken in, Zera Lee?
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 7:38 pm
Taking in (23?) foster children is the one thing I do admire about Michelle Bachmann. But having foster children does not make one qualified to be president. It does not mean they are honest or right in their world view. It doesn’t even mean they are sane.
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 7:51 pm
I heard she only takes in pregnant teens so they won’t abort their babies.
Comment posted January 24, 2011 @ 11:36 pm
>>>> Not only would we have gone from leader of the free world to laughing-stock.
Ironically, the uber left has done exactly that, but it’s the right wing that doesn’t care what the backwater rest of the world thinks. President Bachmann will drag them kicking and screaming to prosperity, Reagan Tea Party style.
Comment posted January 25, 2011 @ 11:00 am
it’s the right wing that doesn’t care what the backwater rest of the world thinks
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It’s the right wing that wants to take the people of this country to the backwater and drown us there. Corporations have other places to spend the country’s wealth.
Comment posted January 25, 2011 @ 6:24 pm
@Jimmy/Rudy/Raymond
Sorry to break it to ya.. Your Masturbatory fantasy “Michele” would make Ronny the Destroyer shake his head in disgust .. You little ‘penile midgets’ have some fascination with women that wouldn’t even pass for a ” MILF” on a FREE mediocre porn site ….Not only would they have trouble passing as “MILFS” they would have a MUCH harder time passing as PRESIDENTS!!
Comment posted January 30, 2011 @ 11:17 am
Michele Bachmann the IDIOT!!!
Talk about pure stupid and total ignorance about American history Congresswoman Michele Marie Bachmann and Republican Sarah Palin. Give all white women a horrible name! Michele Bachmann in her response to President Obama “ Nation Address” mis-stated American history about American Founding Fathers! For her information former President Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner and pure racist! Jefferson disliked seeing women take political roles, Historian Richard Morris wrote, “Abigail Adams excepted, Jefferson detested intellectual women. Annoyed by the political chatter of women in Parisian salons, he wrote home expressing the hope that ‘our good ladies … are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate.’” While President, Jefferson wrote that “The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I. According to historian Stephen Ambrose: “Jefferson, like all slaveholders and many other white members of American society, regarded Negroes as inferior, childlike, untrustworthy and, of course, as property.
Jefferson published his views that blacks were inferior to whites in his book, Notes on the State of Virginia, saying blacks were inferior “in the endowments both of body and mind.” ! Supervising and owning hundreds of slaves, including their children, Jefferson believed that blacks were equal to lazy animals and were inferior to whites in reasoning, mathematical comprehension, and imagination. This was Jefferson’s rationalization for their condition of slavery. In effect, Jefferson believed that the difference between blacks and whites was “fixed in nature”, and was not dependent on their freedom or education.
Jefferson could see no way for African Americans to live in American society as free people, saying “Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. [But] the two races…cannot live in the same government.” For a long-term solution Jefferson believed that slaves should be freed then deported to African colonies. Otherwise, he feared war and that in his words, “human nature must shudder at the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors. This precedent would fall far short of our case.”[
Comment posted February 9, 2011 @ 1:56 pm
We are under assault by the GOP created disparity in incomes. We are under assault by the TP who want to raise taxes on the middle class now and then lower them for the rich. Bachmann doesn’t like the fact American jobs were saved by helping the automotive industry-recovery isn’t what the GOTP wants, or they would be doing something about it right now. Much better to keep unemployment high so people will work for as little as possible-THAT IS WHAT THEIR BOSSES, THE CORPORATIONS, pay them for.
Bachmann’s Mental Health Clinic sucks up Medicaid money while Bachmann rags about socialized medicine. Such hypocrisy for someone getting money from so many different governmental sources.
People’s health and ability to have insurance should come before the the insurance’s ability to make huge profits and CEO’s to reap millions more. I worked in the industry for years-nothing has ever risen like the cost of medical care and insurance. Change has to come, even though the GOP are raking in huge amounts from the health insurance lobby. No small wonder Bachmann defends health insurance but was ready to let car manufacturing companies fail-more hypocrisy.
Bachmann makes untrue statements constantly. Why in the world would people applaud that?
Comment posted February 23, 2011 @ 5:05 am
A STUPID STATEMENT
It should be mandatory that anytime a numbers quote or statistics quote is quoted by TV pundits! They must tell the date it was taken the race of the people polled and how many people where polled! The American people should know. That many of these polls taken are from anywhere from 250 to 5,000 people polled. Also the American people should know that many people polled are white! Bill Maher prove with his statement last Friday not only to have selective memory. But to be totally insensitive to women and female children in America! Bill’s statement that Muslim treat their women worse then in America. First sounds like Mr. Maher see women as property! Second is so wrong! Just take a look at Nancy Grace nightly show! She feature many story of mostly white husbands and boyfriends that murder their wives and girlfriends and their children! IN AMERICA !!!! An 87-year-old white American grandmother subdued by white American police with a stun gun while she was lying in bed hooked up to an oxygen machine is suing her Oklahoma hometown. Varner’s grandson called 911 on Dec. 22 and told the dispatcher his grandmother “wanted to end her life” and that he was concerned she had taken some unknown medicine. Officer Thomas Duran says in a police report that Varner pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to stab and kill him if he tried to take her from her home. Something she and her grandson said is totally a LIE! Bill Maher turns out to be like many white Americans! Living a lie! Also many white Americans HEAR IT! BELIEVE IT! And REPEAT IT! If it’s in favor of white people or against minorities! With know investigation pass the idiot the racist the liar that inform them! Bill seem to be that WHITE PERSON!!!!!
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