Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann (1956-) is a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Minnesota), first elected in 2006 and quickly rising to national prominence as a combative and charismatic social conservative and member of the Christian Right.

Committees

• House Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises
  • Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Issues

Religion and politics

At the present time, a number of political analysts see Bachmann and Sarah Palin as strongly attractive to the more conservative wing of the U.S. Republican Party, both being charismatic women who appeal to strong emotion in the political "base". Some note that on the other end of the political spectrum, Nancy Pelosi also appeals to the base, although she has much more actual political power; while Barack Obama is certainly liberal, he positions himself more centrally than Pelosi.

She is associated with Christian Right groups including Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council, as well as James Dobson and Focus on the Family.

Bachmann ran for Congress after six years as one of the most socially conservative members of the Minnesota state senate. She is a member of the Republican Study Committee, the House conservative caucus.

In 2006, she appeared with George W. Bush, accepting his endorsement

Education

Before she held elective office, in 1993, she helped to start a Stillwater, Minneapolis, charter school that ran afoul of many parents and the local school board due to conflicts over church-state separation but receiving public funds. "After Bachmann and company were driven out of that venture, she became a prolific speaker and writer on the evils of public education in the years leading up to her failed school board run. By all accounts, she made herself into a formidable presence. She's articulate, attractive, and speaks passionately," says Mary Cecconi, who spent eight years on the Stillwater School Board. "Actually, she is ferocious."

"On the stump in 2006, Bachmann still calls education reform one of her "number one priority" issues, along with tax reform and homeland security." Her critics, including non-evangelical Republican, mention religious conservative think tank called EdWatch. Bachmann homeschooled her children, including 23 foster children, saying they were failed by the public-school system.

GLBT

She twice introduced a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and then organized a “Minnesota for Marriage” rally in which she told supporters to flood the state Senate and directly protest to opponents of the bill.

Bachmann has called homosexuality a sexual “dysfunction” and accused the gay community of targeting children.

Environment

Bachmann is strongly against the "cap and trade" proposals to alleviate global warming, which she describes as being "just another tax on business". Global warming, according to Bachmann, is "all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax".

Bachmann has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Widlife Reserve (ANWR), calling it "commonsense" and stating that "we know that nine months out of the year this area is hidden under snow and ice and three months out of the year the area is covered in complete darkness". Bachmann also stated that the Congressional Democrats which oppose ANWR drilling are "standing in the way of $2-a-gallon gas". A 2008 report by the Energy Information Administration casts serious doubt on such a prediction - with between $0.41 and $1.44 reduction in the price of oil per barrel. The report also states:

Assuming that world oil markets continue to work as they do today, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could neutralize any potential price impact of ANWR oil production by reducing its oil exports by an equal amount.

At the time of Bachmann's article, the Energy Information Administration reported that the "weekly U.S. regular conventional retail gasoline price" was $4.00. Since then, gas prices dropped and bottomed out at $1.59 on the 29 December 2008, but have risen in the year since to $2.59 (November 30, 2009).

Health care

She has been vehemently opposed to the Obama Administration's health care proposals, and has supported Tea Party Movement protests to "kill the bill" (see below), and has called it "tyranny". Speaking on the CBS News program "Face the Nation", she said, on 28 March 2010,

"[N]ow we have the federal government taking over ownership or control of 51 percent of the American economy. This is stunning. Prior to September of 2008, 100 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, A.I.G., Freddie [Mac] and Fannie [Mae]...The federal government owns over 50 percent of all home mortgages and now the direct student loan industry."

CBS challenged these assertions in their article the next day. "According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis data since 1929, the highest percentage of government spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product was during World War II when government spending was 47.9 percent (in 1944). The lowest level of government spending as a percent of GDP was 9 percent in 1929 at the outset of the Great Depression.

"At no time during this period was the United States' GDP 100 percent private.

"The 2009 level of federal government spending was 20.6 percent."

Her communications director, Dave Dziok, explained the 51 percent estimate as coming from William Boyes, an economics professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, "who estimates that the government now owns or controls businesses that generate about one-third of U.S. economic activity. With the passage of the health care bill, which makes up about 18 percent of the economy, government’s involvement in the private sector has eclipsed the 50 percent threshold."

Dziok wrote that the 100 percent figure "...has nothing to do with the numbers...from the Bureau of Economic Analysis regarding the level of government spending as a percent of GDP. She was stating the fact that the federal government has seized control of private businesses like General Motors and AIG. She wasn’t talking at all about government spending."

She also said "The New England Journal of Medicine released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that over 30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession if the government took over health care. That's very serious going forward."

CBS, however, said the New England Journal of Medicine has denied it conducted or published the survey cited by Bachmann. Dziok responded, in an email, "I know they’re doing what they can to distance themselves from the survey done by Medicus, but the fact of the matter is the New England Journal of Medicine has lent both its name and crest to the newsletter in which it was published."

Tea Party Movement

She is a prominent supporter of the Tea Party Movement. After calling for a protest on Sean Hannity's television show the previous week, saying "she hoped viewers would come to her press conference and then walk through the congressional office buildings, "up and down through the halls, find members of Congress, look at the whites of their eyes and say, 'Don't take away my health care.'" On November 5, she held a rally at the U.S. Capitol. Officially, it was a press conference and not a rally, since there was no demonstration permit; an estimated 5 to 10,000 supporters attended. It was formally directed at rejecting the health care bill to be voted on, in the House. House minority leader John Boehner, appearing on the platform said "This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen," (R-Ohio). Rep. Todd Akin (R-Missouri ) asked for the Pledge of Allegiance because "it drives the liberals crazy" to hear the "under God" part. Minority whip Eric Cantor also appeared, as did Representatives Steve King (R-Iowa), Paul Broun (R-Georgia), Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) and Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana). Andrea Shea King and Kristinn Taylor provided media support.

She was scheduled to be a featured speaker at the February 2010 convention of Tea Party Nation, but has withdrawn, citing concerns with the disposition of the proceeds by its organizer, Judson Phillips. Phillips has said he expects to make a profit on it, but many activists are complaining about the $550 ticket price and the $100,000 speaker fee to be paid to Sarah Palin.

Voting record

Organization	Rating	Source
AFL-CIO	7%	[1]
American Civil Liberties Union	18%
American Conservative Union	100%
Americans for Democratic Action	0%
Cato Institute	57%
Christian Coalition	100%
Human Rights Campaign	0%
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People	20%
NARAL	0%
National Rifle Association	A
National Right to Life Committee	100%
National Taxpayers Union	A (2008) 95% (2007)
U.S. Chamber of Commerce	94%

2008 Campaign

During the 2008 campaign, on October 17, she suggested, on MSNBC, that that being liberal was "anti-American," and, according to many listeners, implied this to Barack Obama; Bachmann said that the media should investigate members of Congress to see if they were "pro-American" or 'anti-American." Colin Powell said that he had endorsed Obama, in part, due to comments such as hers, which he regarded as needlessly divisive.

A week later, she said "I did not say that Barack Obama was anti-American, nor do I believe Barack Obama is anti-American. He loves his country, just as everyone in this room does...Nor did I call for an investigation of members of Congress for their pro-American or anti-American views. That is not what I said."

Bachmann explicitly refused to endorse John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008, telling the West Sherburne Tribune that McCain "is not my man. Our candidate was chosen by the media".

Candidate	Party	Vote total	Percentage
Michele Bachmann	Republican	187,817	46.41%
El Tinklenberg	Farmer-Labor	175,786	43.43%
Bob Anderson	Independent	40,643	10.04%

2010 election

Primary: September 14

• See also: 2010 U.S. Congressional election