Michele Bachmann: I lost my insurance

Rep. Michele Bachmann says she is one of the people who lost their health insurance because of Obamacare and she won’t go shopping on a health exchange until it’s fixed.

“Are you kidding? I’m not going to waste an hour on that thing,” the Minnesota Republican said when Wolf Blitzer asked her on CNN on Thursday if she’d signed up on the exchange website. “I lost my health insurance under Obamacare. And so now I’m forced to go into the D.C. health exchange. I’m waiting until they fix this thing. I’m not going to sit there and frustrate myself for hours and hours.”

Bachmann was referencing the continuing problems that have plagued the rollout of many of the health care exchange websites since they launched on Oct. 1. The White House has pledged it will be working for most users by the end of the month.

(Also on POLITICO: Obama's messy breakup with insurers)

Blitzer pressed Bachmann on when she would sign up, given the Dec. 15 deadline for anyone who wants coverage to kick in on Jan. 1.

“At some point we’re going to have to figure it out. I have a husband with very significant health issues. We have to have health insurance. So we will get it figured it out,” Bachmann said.

Appearing with her on the “Situation Room,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala seized on her comments about her husband’s health issues, saying she should be thankful for President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Via: Politico

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Time Got It Wrong: Women Aren't the Only 'Adults' of the Shutdown

At Yahoo News, former ABC and CBS political producer Marc Ambinder picked apart a Time magazine article by Jay Newton-Small triumphantly headlined “In Shutdown, Women are the Only Adults Left.” It was so pro-“chick” that “Several women rights' groups, like EMILY's List, picked up the story for use in fundraising.” (Newton-Small reported only two of the 20 female senators – Kelly Ayotte and Debbie Fischer -- are pro-life. All 16 Democrats favor abortion.)

Ambinder rejected this article primarily because the Democrats weren’t “equally childish” to the conservative Republicans, and because the “childlike qualities” of the hardest-headed Democrats were “absolutely essential” to winning:

The idea that women were the only adults in the shut-down is attractive. But it ain't so. One, Republicans and Democrats were not equally childish in this debacle, something that Republicans themselves recognize. Two, Democratic leaders and the White House had to be hard-headed and obstinate in order to force the House Republicans to give up and to re-open the government. Those childlike qualities were absolutely essential.

Sadly, women did not play a significant role in the government shutdown. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray's role will be very important going forward, but that's because she's proven herself indispensable on budget matters and not because she is a woman. In the House, Rep. Michelle Bachmann had perhaps the biggest megaphone of any woman in Washington during the shut-down, and she wasn't on the side of the angels here.

The "angel" side is the Obamacare side, in the media minds. Ambinder suggests his female colleague Newton-Small is patronizing to women:

The women in the U.S. Senate are incredible people, but it's patronizing to say that they are even more special than their male counterparts because they are women...Until women become power-brokers in Congress, and I really do want them to become power-brokers in Congress, there is no way to assess whether simply being a woman makes one a better, more effective legislator for our times without resorting to barely-post-Victorian era notions of what women have than men lack.

Via: Newsbusters

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Bachmann: House Could Impeach 'Dictator' Obama

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that President Obama has “committed impeachable offenses” and that the House could hold a hearing to impeach.

“We can have an impeachment hearing in the House, and in my mind the president has committed impeachable offenses,” Bachmann told conservative talk show host Rusty Humphries in an interview first detailed by Right Wing Watch.

Bachmann was careful to distinguish between the House’s ability to impeach the president, which she said would merely be a “stain” on his record, and the Senate’s authority to remove the president from office, which she acknowledged would be unlikely in the Democratic-controlled upper chamber.

Still, the Minnesota Republican warned that impeachment was a “disruptive and harmful” tool.

“Impeachment is important that we have that tool — it’s very important — but it’s also disruptive and harmful to the nation and it’s to be used sparingly,” she said.

But she argued it may be necessary because citizens are on the cusp of civil disobedience because they’re so fed up with Obama’s “thuggery.”

“I think we could be on the cusp of seeing civil disobedience — I’m not saying I want civil disobedience — but people aren’t going to take the thuggery of this president much longer,” she said. “We see thuggery going on in the White House, we’re not going to take it. We’ve drawn a line in the sand, and we’re telling the president you need to recognize ... that you are a co-equal branch of government. You are not a dictator.”

Bachmann said that the U.S. was at risk of devolving “into a dictatorship,” but that the Tea Party had done its job in standing up to Democrats on the fiscal issues surrounding the government shutdown.

Via: The Hill

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Bachmann: Obama ‘Arming Terrorists’ Means We’re in ‘God’s End Times’

While many House Republicans were dealing with the ongoing government shutdown this weekend, Rep. Michele Bachmann was giving an interview to Christina radio show Understanding the Times, in which she told host Jan Markell how she knows that the biblical “end times” are near.

Bachmann said it’s “hard to believe” but on the day of the Washington Navy Yard shooting,President Obama “waived a ban on arming terrorists in order to allow weapons to go to the Syrian opposition.” The congresswoman appeared to be referencing the Obama Administration’s decision to send anti-chemical weapons gear to vetted Syrian opposition forces, not known terrorists. “Your listeners, US taxpayers, are now paying to give arms to terrorists including Al Qaeda,” she said.

The reason Americans haven’t heard about this, Bachmann said, is because it happened right in the middle of the Navy Yard shooting and the Kenya Mall attack. “This happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists,” she said. “Now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history.”

Bachmann clarified that she wasn’t making these comments to cause Americans “fear” and “rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice.”

Listen to audio below, via Understanding the Times:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Bachmann: When Are Obamas, Sebelius, Roberts, and IRS Chief Signing Up For Obamacare?

(CNSNews.com) – When asked about the 10,535 pages of final regulations that have been published in the Federal Register for implementing Obamacare, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Americans want to see those responsible for Obamacare to sign up for it, including President Barack Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Daniel Werfel, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

“What I want to know is when are we going to see the photo -- President and Michelle Obama signing up for Obamacare?” Bachmann told CNSNews.com on Friday on Capitol Hill.

“When are we going to see the photo of [Chief Justice] John Roberts and Mrs. Roberts sign up for Obamacare?” said Bachman.  “When are going to see Kathleen Sebelius and her husband signing up for Obamacare?”

Via: CNS News

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Bachmann Denies Saying Shutdown ‘Exactly What We Wanted’: WaPo and Obama ‘Misquoted Me’

Friday afternoon, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) sat down with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to offer her response to comments made by President Obama earlier in the day about his willingness to negotiate with Republicans. The congresswoman also disputed comments she made about the government shutdown being “exactly” what the GOP “wanted.”

Bachmann rejected Obama’s proposal to end the government shutdown before negotiations over health care and other issues begin. “The president is saying fully fund the government, don’t negotiate on any of the programs,” she said, “on how much we’re spending, and then keep giving him all the money that he wants in order to keep spending, so then what is there left to talk about?” If the “president is saying ‘I’ll negotiate after you give me everything I want,’” Bachmann asked, “then what is there left to negotiate on?”

Blitzer pointed out that all the president is really asking for is that Congress end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. “Isn’t that your job?” he asked. After Bachmann clarified what her job is, Blitzer moved on to show a clip of Obama “ridiculing” a statement she had made earlier in the week that the shutdown is “exactly what we wanted.”

“A lot of times the media gets it wrong,” Bachmann responded. “Now the president of the United States is getting wrong quotes.” She backtracked on the quote from The Washington Post, saying, “What we wanted is the ability to be able to put on the floor what we agree on, because we were having problems getting to yes, getting to agreement on Obamacare.” She indicated that her comments referred to attempts to fund parts of the government that everyone could agree on and not the shutdown itself.

“That quote in The Washington Post you weren’t referring to–you didn’t want a government shutdown?” Blitzer asked.

“No, absolutely not. The quote was wrong and the president had misquoted me as well, probably taking it inadvertently from the The Washington Post that got it wrong.”

As it appeared in The Washington Post on Saturday, September 28th, before the shutdown went into effect, Bachmann’s quote did appear to refer to the inevitability of the government shutdown. The article, by Ed O’Keefe and Rosalind S. Helderman began:

While much of official Washington on Saturday somberly faced the likelihood of a government shutdown, the most conservative members of the House sported a different expression.

They were smiling.

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

Watch video below, via CNN:

Via: Mediaite.com

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The Phone Lines Melt

And in boxes are inundated, as people urge their congressmen to oppose military action in Syria. 

The phones are ringing off the hook in Congress — and virtually no one is calling in to support military intervention in Syria.

At the office of Representative Chris Gibson (R., N.Y.), who represents a swing district, the number of phone calls and e-mails from constituents regarding military action in Syria has “far exceeded the normal volume,” says Gibson aide Stephanie Valle.

In recent days, Gibson’s office has received “about 850 e-mails on it, and out of those, 840 are opposed to military intervention,” Valle adds.

Gibson opted to go further. Instead of simply waiting for constituents to contact him, his office e-mailed to their list a survey regarding Syria. Of the 5,400 who responded, 85 percent agreed with Gibson: It would be a mistake for the United States to take military action there.

Gibson is hardly alone. Aides to GOP House members consistently say that overwhelmingly the calls and e-mails that their offices are receiving about Syria are against taking any military action there. Many Republicans have heard from no more than a handful of constituents supporting intervention. Several staffers, echoing Valle’s observation, say that, of the hundreds of calls and e-mails they’ve received about Syria, those in support of military intervention can be counted on the fingers of both hands.

Dan Kotman, communications director for Representative Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.), says that Bachmann’s office “has been inundated with phone calls, e-mails, and letters about the situation in Syria.”

Via: National Review Online

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