Bachmann: Gov’t Shutdown Talk Is Liberal Scare Tactic vs. Cuts

Talk of a government shutdown is a liberal ploy to frighten the American public about proposed GOP budget cuts, Rep. Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax.TV. And even as Republicans work on the budget now, they also must keep an eye toward 2012 because President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will survive if he is re-elected, said the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus.

During an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, the Minnesota Republican was adamant when asked whether a government shutdown like the one in 1995 is likely. That shutdown happened when Republicans controlled the House and Democrat Bill Clinton was president. The blame fell on the GOP, and Clinton was re-elected.

“That’s not going to happen because that won’t serve anyone’s interest,” she said. “That’s a bugaboo that the liberals right now are trying to throw out to scare the American people. No one is going to agree to a government shutdown. That will not happen. So let’s just take that off the table.”

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Republicans must remain focused on 2012 and not forget that, unless the GOP holds the House, wins the Senate, and retrieves the White House, Obamacare will survive, said Bachmann, who has been mulling the possibility of a presidential run herself.

That possibility wasn’t lost on many in the audience of 1,100 during her speech kicking off the 38th annual CPAC, when she made comments such as: “There’s no question — and I have no reservation in saying this — we have seen President Obama usher in socialism under his watch over the last two years.”

Also during the conference opener, she earned audience plaudits when she decried the financial clout China wields in the United States. “Our friendly Chinese bankers” are the only beneficiaries of the ballooning U.S. debt, she said.

To stop Obama in 2012, Bachmann said during the Newsmax interview, “The message is don’t forget to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is we need a triple crown victory for 2012. We need to hold the gavel in the House of Representatives. We need to win four more seats at minimum to secure a conservative Senate and we have to win the White House, and the reason why is because we have to see the repeal of Obamacare.

“The honest truth is that it will be very difficult to repeal Obamacare if we have to wait for another presidential election in 2016,” she said.

On other issues during the Newsmax interview, Bachmann said:

• We must change the arc of history and “if we don’t fund Obamacare and if we don’t fund cap and trade, that will change the arc of history.”
• That Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be shut down because the government has no business being America’s mortgage company.
• That the president’s plan to spur job creation was nothing more than advocating the 150-year-old technology of trains and windmills and it was not going to move us to high levels of prosperity.
• That she plans to visit the presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina and will be “part of the conversation” but said she has not decided on whether to run for president.