Sep 30, 2009 2:34pm
Rep. Bachmann: Obama Lacks ‘Credibility’ on Health Care; Welcomes Lightning-Rod Status
EmailABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of President Obama’s most vocal and outspoken critics, today escalated her attack on the president’s health care plans, calling into question the president’s “credibility.”
”I think the real concerns right now are statements that the president has made that are demonstrably false,” Bachmann, R-Minn., said on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line.” “The president said that people can keep their health care if they’re satisfied with it; we know that’s not true. He said the average American would save about $2,500 on their annual policy; we know that’s not true. And then he said Americans making less than $250,000 a year would pay no increased taxes; we know that’s not true. And I think that has people having red flags raised, and it calls into question the president’s credibility.” Bachmann also said she’s embracing her status as a lightning rod in her party, saying that she expects workers from ACORN to try to work against her reelection next year. “Being No. 1 on Nancy Pelosi’s hit list will garner a lot of attention on both sides,” she said, “and also I think on ACORN — I’ve made it very clear that I’ve been trying to actively work to find out what the truth is about ACORN. And that may invite a lot of ACORN workers to try and come work against me as well. So I understand that — it comes with the territory. But the main thing that I’m focused on right now is to move forward our country with the agenda that we need to have to get out from this crushing debt load that we’re looking at for the future.” Bachmann, who has expressed skepticism about greenhouse gases’ contribution to global warming, also criticized Democratic attempts to impose a “cap-and-trade” system to curb greenhouse gas production. “What this means is that the government then would have ownership or control over another 8 percent of private business profits,” she said. “I don’t think that’s the direction American people want to go. And if President Obama gets his way on health care, that’s the government owning or controlling another 18 percent of private business profits, which means in about a year’s time the government would own or control 56 percent of private business profits. That’s enough to make the hair stand up on the back of anybody’s head.” She also criticized the president’s efforts to find a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. “It’s very concerning that it’s been approximately eight, nine months that the president has been in office and he doesn’t seem to have a strategy yet on Afghanistan. In fact, some people have suggested that the president is voting ‘present’ on the Afghanistan policy. We have men and women in harm’s way today, and I agree with the president that we need to make the right decision in moving forward, but it seems a little late to the dance to be making a decision now.” Click HERE to see the full interview with Rep. Michele Bachmann. We also got Ana Marie Cox’s take on Bachmann, Afghanistan, and the health care debate. You can watch that discussion HERE.
Sen. DeMint: GOP Race Could Go Until Convention 
Obama Avoids Questions on Contraception Rule
After the ‘success’ in Kentucky of her paranoid ranting against the census, and her history of pushing conspiracy theories like the government forcing people into mandatory re-education camps, she isn’t a lighting rod but rather the crazy guy on the corner that you worry about snapping and coming at you with a knife.
“the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps”
“I believe that there’s a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concern is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people,”
Posted by: jhw539 | September 30, 2009, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
So, instead of debating her statements above, you just call her crazy?
makes perfect sense.
Posted by: stdntDrvr | September 30, 2009, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Bimbo Barbie wannabe
Posted by: jks | September 30, 2009, 3:11 pm 3:11 pm
Yep, took a woman to have the **#&% to stand up to Obama, she knows he’s lying, and the people do as well….go get em!
Posted by: lyineyes1956 | September 30, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
Is this the same woman who said the Goverment was going to set up Mandatory Education camps? That her SON Joined this woman does not Know the first thing about WAR She is a hate talking fear monger for the extreme right!
Posted by: Angie in PA | September 30, 2009, 3:22 pm 3:22 pm
ah, yes.
The fantastic, sureal GOP statements from another self-serving, conservative vote seeker.
How low will they stoop?
..are they trying to incite riots?
Why does ABC post these fictional analyses from conservative hucksters every day?
Posted by: gus amaral | September 30, 2009, 3:23 pm 3:23 pm
I am so sick of hearing from the rightwing loonies on the so- called MSM, morning noon and night.
What about quoting Senator Mark Warner, for a change, Olympia Snowe, even, Warren Buffet, the Pulitzer Price winner on Obama’s cabinet (I can’t even remember his name, that’s how often he gets quoted,)? What about hearing quotes from my Governor, Baldacci, instead of FORMER Governor Sarah Palin? MY Governor is actually still working for his state; why not hear what he has to say about healthcare reform since he has been struggling with MaineCare for years? Honestly, the media is letting us down, focusing on the nuttiest of the nuts, instead of the people who are rational. I don’t watch FOX News but I know all about Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh, why is that? It’s because the MSM quotes them for entertainment value. The same with this bizaree Michelle Bachman. And NONE of those FOX pundits have a college education or policy experience or anything to contribute except misinformation, lies and slander. Why are these nuts endlessly quoted?
Posted by: Amy in Maine | September 30, 2009, 3:41 pm 3:41 pm
Amy in Maine
I agree we never hear anything positive Just negative. We never hear about the People that support Public Option only those who oppose it its depressing.
Posted by: Angie in PA | September 30, 2009, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
There doesn’t seem to be interest in someone doing good and with today’s climate, there would be posters finding ways to demean them, right or wrong.
Bachman is a nut, pure and simple. How someone can defend her, after all the misinformed statements she has made, is beyond my understanding. Of course, she fits right in the the hardcore conservatives who will believe anything as long as it sounds like Limbaughish, Beckish and stupidish.
Posted by: Ken | September 30, 2009, 4:28 pm 4:28 pm
I think Ms Bachmann is simply following the republican party line, which is yell, scream, hollar & make things up as if they were the truth. Talk a lot & get yourself on TV (Fox mostly) spouting ridiculous rhetoric.
“Amy in Maine
I agree we never hear anything positive Just negative. We never hear about the People that support Public Option only those who oppose it its depressing.”
I agree with both of you.
Posted by: Linda | September 30, 2009, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
Hmmm, sounds like Rep. Bachmann is trying to compete with La Palin in playing the “poor little me, so victimized by the left” game, as well as in making the most idiotic statements by a Republican woman. This
competition should become very interesting (sort of a battle of wits between two unarmed opponents) although Palin does have more charisma and is more attractive. Come to think of it, sooner or later, the Republicans who want to run for President in 2012 are going to start going after each other in what should be a real bloodbath. Let the games begin. We need a few more laughs.
Posted by: BachisBest | September 30, 2009, 6:28 pm 6:28 pm
With some good fortune we could see a 2012 Republican ticket of both “Witless from Wasilla” a the “Dingbat from Duluth”. Seriously, it’s not possible to debate a politician’s positions totally ungrounded in reality. I also wonder when the wingnut 10%ers will awaken to the fact that that Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity, Colter, et.al. just see them as “cash cows” to be milked and manipulated.
Posted by: B. Bear | September 30, 2009, 6:51 pm 6:51 pm
Keep hating her. Keep trying to destroy her, you guys are going to freak out when she is in GOP leadership when Republicans retake Congress. You may even see U.S. Attorney General Bachmann or VP Bachmann. Be afraid guys your days are numbered and watch it be hard for you liberals to recover after the failure of Obama.
Posted by: Brandon Beacham | September 30, 2009, 9:45 pm 9:45 pm
I don’t know why anyone asks a republican anything these days. You know they are going to say something negative. What you should be asking them is “what did you accomplish in the last 8 years?” See what their answer will be. They are just taking the spotlight off their lack of success and achievement when they were in charge and all they will be doing for the next few years is criticize. I will respect the one who stands up and says…I think the president is trying to do a good job and is tackeling what we did not. That is the person we should be talking to not the sore losers. How quickly we forgot who really let the economy fail….it was not President Obama and whatever he does is better than what had been done in the previous years. Whether or not he is a successful president will be judged later on but one can never accuse him of neglecting what needs to be addressed.
Posted by: talmag | October 1, 2009, 10:46 am 10:46 am
“It’s very concerning that it’s been eight, nine months that the president has been in office and he doesn’t seem to have a strategy yet on Afghanistan.”
Michelle, George Bush was in office for eight YEARS and he never had a strategy in either Iraq or Afghanistan. And you expect Pres Obama to set things right in less than a tenth of that time?! What is with you?
And your concern over the government’s control of business profits somehow morphing from 18% (where did that number come from anyway?) to 56% indicates that you didn’t do well in elementary mathematics. And wouldn’t it be nice if the government had done a little control over the profits that the Masters of the Universe were making off of their shell game before things deteriorated? We wouldn’t be in this mess now. But I am sure that you don’t see it that way and can somehow rationalize their sleight of hand manipulations of derivatives and illegitimate mortgages to not be connected with the economic mess we, not you, suffer from.
And being number one on anyone’s hit list is a gross excess of self-esteem on your part. Believe me, you are not important enough to anyone for them to go after you. Your irrationality is enough that the voters eventually will decide that you just aren’t worth it.
Posted by: Texas Aggie | October 1, 2009, 1:02 pm 1:02 pm
Michele Bachmann questioning ANYONE’S credibility and truthfulness is so rich it defies description.
Ms. Pot, Meet Mr. Kettle.
Posted by: George | October 1, 2009, 2:01 pm 2:01 pm