Bachmann: 'Too Many Republicans ... Aspire to Be Frugal Socialists'
Cybercast News Service ^ | November 7, 2011 | Fred Lucas
Posted on November 7, 2011 8:32:43 PM EST by markomalley
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is running for president, said Monday that "too many Republicans ... aspire to be frugal socialists” who "share the same core political philosophy about the purpose of government" as President Barack Obama.
When asked to name the Republicans she was speaking about, Bachman jokingly told a reporter, "That's part of the puzzle you get to figure out when I give the speech."
Speaking at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., Bachmann warned that if the United States was not willing to make major changes in cutting spending it would end up like Greece, which has gone bankrupt and required a bailout from European neighbors.
“While Greece is crashing, President Obama has called for America to be even more like Greece,” Bachmann said. “He’s calling for even more government welfare, more government student loans, more government mortgages and more government spending to create yet more government jobs. What he’s calling for is more failure. What America needs is more success, because socialism is a principle that I will reject.
“I will work to eradicate socialism all across the United States government, but unfortunately for too many Republicans, they also aspire to be frugal socialists,” Bachmann said. “The reason President Obama and some Republicans can get behind socialized medicine is because they share the same core political philosophy about the purpose of government. We can’t preserve liberty if the choice a year from now is between a frugal socialist and an out of control socialist.”
The only candidate who has ever supported anything that resembled socialized medicine would be the Massachusetts health care system signed into law in 2006 by then Gov. Mitt Romney, who along with all other GOP contenders wants to repeal Obamacare. However, he has defended his health care plan at the state level.
Romney told a New Hampshire town hall gathering in October that he was solidly opposed to gay marriage but would support “partnership agreements” for homosexual couples for things such as hospital visitation. Romney’s campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said Romney believed the issue of gay adoption should be decided on a state-by-state basis.
CNSNews.com asked her about Romney’s position, but she answered only by repeating her position on the matter.
“I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Bachmann told CNSNews.com. “I don’t stand for the proposition that marriage can include people of different sexes. Marriage is one man and one woman.”
Bachmann said crony capitalism is a major problem and cited the $535 million government loan from the Energy Department to Solyndra, which went into bankruptcy shortly before it was raided by the FBI.
“Government does what the Constitution and what decent morality prohibit. That is crony capitalism. That is what is making up Washington, D.C., today: crony capitalism – forcefully taking the people’s money for the purpose of a politician’s political friends,” Bachmann said. “And this president and other politicians aren’t even doing good at hiding it anymore. It is to our shame that members of both political parties do this.”
“The most egregious example we’ve seen recently is Solyndra and other organizations,” Bachmann added. “That’s the way of a banana republic, and that’s not reflective of my principle of equal treatment under the law. This practice, whether it occurs at the state level or the federal level, is letting the interest of a few outweigh the majority of Americans who don’t have access to the system. The solution is beyond obvious.”
Ultimately, the answer to both Greece and America’s fiscal situation is simple, Bachmann said.
“Every one of us knows exactly what Greece needs to do. Greece needs to stop spending money that they don’t have,” Bachmann said. “Greece needs to cut up their credit card. Greece needs to shut down a few government agencies and let a few government employees go.
“Everyone in this room knows exactly what Greece needs to do. So all we need to do is look in the mirror, because that is exactly America’s problem too. We are going the way of Greece if we don’t take our own medicine,” she said.
