She was on Face the Nation on Sunday 3/28
TRANSCRIPT
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (R-Minnesota): I do, because now we have the
federal government, Bob, taking over ownership or control of fifty-one percent of the American
economy. This is stunning. Prior to September of 2008, one hundred percent of the private
economy was private. Today, the federal government has taken either direct ownership or
control of banks, the largest insurance company in the United States, AIG, Freddie and Fannie.
The federal government now owns, Bob, over fifty percent of all home mortgages. Now, the
direct student loan industry, Chrysler, GM. And with the health care industry that’s an additional
eighteen percent of the private economy, which means government would be making decisions
over our lives from cradle to the grave. I think that’s a stunning level of government takeover
and control we have never seen before in the history of our country.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, we’d never seen the government on-- I mean the economy on the
verge of total collapse. And-- and we have to point out that a lot of this began during the Bush
administration. It was President Bush, who was President, when the law of a-- TARP law was
passed to give aid to these big banks and so forth. Both people in that administration and this
one--
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (overlapping): I-- I agree and I-- I vo-- I vote--
BOB SCHIEFFER: --would say that that staved off what could have been something like the
Great Depression. You don’t agree with that?
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Actually, I don’t agree with that. No. I voted
against the seven-hundred-billion-dollar bailout. And that was really the mother of purchasing
out AIG, purchasing the-- the banks, also purchasing Freddie and Fannie, purchasing GM and
Chrysler. That hasn’t helped to turn our economy around. Remember, when President Obama
told Congress you have to pass my trillion-dollar bailout or we could get unemployment as high
5
as eight percent. Here we are still at ten percent unemployment levels. And the administration
has warned the American people get ready, this is the new normal. We don’t have to have this
be the new normal. But if government persists, remember, again, fifty-one percent of the
economy is now under the ownership or control of the federal government. We need an exit
strategy and we need to get back to private ownership so that we can have a productive
economy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Congresswoman, I want to ask you about something that's stirred up
something of a controversy when you said it some-- some time ago. You said that you thought
Barack Obama had anti-American views. And just last week you said, "I said," and this is a
quote from you, "Very serious concerns that Barack Obama had anti-American views. Now I
look like Nostradamus." So do you-- what do you mean the President is anti-American?
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: What I meant are the policies that I had just
mentioned to you. I think it is very serious when the federal government directly owns car
companies. That is not the American way, or when the American economy directly owns fifty
percent of all America’s mortgages or has direct ownership or control of the health care industry.
Just this week, we saw American businesses announce that Obamacare will cost them fourteen
billion dollars. Here in Minnesota, Medtronic announced because of the new tax increases on
medical devices they could be looking at shedding an additional thousand jobs or 3M, it will cost
them potentially ninety million dollars in the first quarter. President Obama’s own numbers, his
own economic advisor, Christina Romer, said that Obamacare could cost the economy five and
a half million jobs lost. That is not going to bring us back to economic health going forward, but
that’s what you expect when you have massive tax increases, massive Medicare cuts, massive
premium increases. You will have massive job loss.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about where Republicans go from here on health care
reform. Sarah Palin famously said last week that it is not time for Republicans to retreat. It is
time to reload. Now, she has since modified that and said she wasn’t talking about guns. She
was talking about getting out there and using the vote. Do you think Sarah Palin has overstated
it here?
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, I think that she’s accurately saying that the
Republican Party and-- and people who are conservatives in this country and Independents and
disaffected Democrats want to have the federal government repeal Obamacare. And I would
agree. I went to the House floor the first thing on Monday and put a bill in that would repeal
Obamacare. So did other of my colleagues, Steve King of Iowa, also Parker Griffith of Alabama,
and also other members as well. Jim DeMint also put in a bill to repeal Obamacare. That’s what
I believe the American people want us to do. And again, the New England Journal of Medicine
released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that the-- ov--
over thirty percent of American physicians--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): So--
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: --would leave the profession if the government
took over health care. That’s very serious going forward.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So you intend to-- to oppose this, obviously. Do you think Republicans
should co-- should cooperate with the administration on anything from here on in, or just put it
all on the line here, oppose this administration and let people settle it in November?
6
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, I-- I think that we need to repeal
Obamacare. But I think we need to be all about the American people. That’s why I oppose
Obamacare and why I believe we must repeal it. We need to work together, whether we’re
Republicans, Independents, Democrats, we all have to work together. For whatever is in the
best interest of the American people. And repeal most certainly is in the best interest--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): All right.
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: --of the people because this bill will lead to
economic harm if it’s left in place.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, thank you so much, Congresswoman.
TRANSCRIPT
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (R-Minnesota): I do, because now we have the
federal government, Bob, taking over ownership or control of fifty-one percent of the American
economy. This is stunning. Prior to September of 2008, one hundred percent of the private
economy was private. Today, the federal government has taken either direct ownership or
control of banks, the largest insurance company in the United States, AIG, Freddie and Fannie.
The federal government now owns, Bob, over fifty percent of all home mortgages. Now, the
direct student loan industry, Chrysler, GM. And with the health care industry that’s an additional
eighteen percent of the private economy, which means government would be making decisions
over our lives from cradle to the grave. I think that’s a stunning level of government takeover
and control we have never seen before in the history of our country.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, we’d never seen the government on-- I mean the economy on the
verge of total collapse. And-- and we have to point out that a lot of this began during the Bush
administration. It was President Bush, who was President, when the law of a-- TARP law was
passed to give aid to these big banks and so forth. Both people in that administration and this
one--
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (overlapping): I-- I agree and I-- I vo-- I vote--
BOB SCHIEFFER: --would say that that staved off what could have been something like the
Great Depression. You don’t agree with that?
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Actually, I don’t agree with that. No. I voted
against the seven-hundred-billion-dollar bailout. And that was really the mother of purchasing
out AIG, purchasing the-- the banks, also purchasing Freddie and Fannie, purchasing GM and
Chrysler. That hasn’t helped to turn our economy around. Remember, when President Obama
told Congress you have to pass my trillion-dollar bailout or we could get unemployment as high
5
as eight percent. Here we are still at ten percent unemployment levels. And the administration
has warned the American people get ready, this is the new normal. We don’t have to have this
be the new normal. But if government persists, remember, again, fifty-one percent of the
economy is now under the ownership or control of the federal government. We need an exit
strategy and we need to get back to private ownership so that we can have a productive
economy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Congresswoman, I want to ask you about something that's stirred up
something of a controversy when you said it some-- some time ago. You said that you thought
Barack Obama had anti-American views. And just last week you said, "I said," and this is a
quote from you, "Very serious concerns that Barack Obama had anti-American views. Now I
look like Nostradamus." So do you-- what do you mean the President is anti-American?
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: What I meant are the policies that I had just
mentioned to you. I think it is very serious when the federal government directly owns car
companies. That is not the American way, or when the American economy directly owns fifty
percent of all America’s mortgages or has direct ownership or control of the health care industry.
Just this week, we saw American businesses announce that Obamacare will cost them fourteen
billion dollars. Here in Minnesota, Medtronic announced because of the new tax increases on
medical devices they could be looking at shedding an additional thousand jobs or 3M, it will cost
them potentially ninety million dollars in the first quarter. President Obama’s own numbers, his
own economic advisor, Christina Romer, said that Obamacare could cost the economy five and
a half million jobs lost. That is not going to bring us back to economic health going forward, but
that’s what you expect when you have massive tax increases, massive Medicare cuts, massive
premium increases. You will have massive job loss.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about where Republicans go from here on health care
reform. Sarah Palin famously said last week that it is not time for Republicans to retreat. It is
time to reload. Now, she has since modified that and said she wasn’t talking about guns. She
was talking about getting out there and using the vote. Do you think Sarah Palin has overstated
it here?
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, I think that she’s accurately saying that the
Republican Party and-- and people who are conservatives in this country and Independents and
disaffected Democrats want to have the federal government repeal Obamacare. And I would
agree. I went to the House floor the first thing on Monday and put a bill in that would repeal
Obamacare. So did other of my colleagues, Steve King of Iowa, also Parker Griffith of Alabama,
and also other members as well. Jim DeMint also put in a bill to repeal Obamacare. That’s what
I believe the American people want us to do. And again, the New England Journal of Medicine
released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that the-- ov--
over thirty percent of American physicians--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): So--
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: --would leave the profession if the government
took over health care. That’s very serious going forward.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So you intend to-- to oppose this, obviously. Do you think Republicans
should co-- should cooperate with the administration on anything from here on in, or just put it
all on the line here, oppose this administration and let people settle it in November?
6
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: Well, I-- I think that we need to repeal
Obamacare. But I think we need to be all about the American people. That’s why I oppose
Obamacare and why I believe we must repeal it. We need to work together, whether we’re
Republicans, Independents, Democrats, we all have to work together. For whatever is in the
best interest of the American people. And repeal most certainly is in the best interest--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): All right.
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN: --of the people because this bill will lead to
economic harm if it’s left in place.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, thank you so much, Congresswoman.
