Bachmann on Jason Lewis KTLK October 3, 2007
SCHIP vote
5 minutes 41 seconds
JL: Rep. Michele Bachmann joins us now, presumably from Washington DC. Michele, is there enough support, is there enough spine in the House Republican caucus to sustain the president’s veto on this legislation?
MB: Oh I think there absolutely is. I mean this is incredible, Jason. I’m just calling to say “keep going”. I’m standing here in my office right now in Washington. The TV is on, there’s a commercial on TV that says “Support SCHIP.” I just walked back from the Capitol. We took a vote. The Democrats want to delay the SCHIP vote to overturn the president’s veto that he issued this morning, they want to delay it two weeks and I’ll tell you why. They want to beat up on enough of us –
JL: Right –
MB: - so that we will change our vote –
JL: Right –
MB: So they want to give themselves and MOveOn.org two weeks to beat up on us. Tonight at 7 o’clock in St. Cloud they’re – they’re planning a big demonstration at my office in St. Cloud –
JL: Right –
MB: - to beat up on me. They’ll bring all the local media out –
JL: Right –
MB: - so that I’ll cave and uh switch my vote on SCHIP, which is not going to happen.
JL: This really is amazing. Of course the Republicans in the Senate have already caved, making your task that much more difficult. With all those wayward Republicans like Orrin Hatch and Charles Grassley, and I’m afraid Sen. Coleman, going with the Democrats on this bill, that puts more pressure on the conservatives in the House Republican caucus to stand firm. Here you have the president leading, finally, after five and a half years on spending restraint, and the Republicans are deserting him.
MB: Well, they’ve, they’ve totally abandoned him now in the Senate, and we’re hanging on by a thread here in the House. They’ve got to flip 15 Republicans to go with them. They’ve already flipped Democrats. There were -
JL: Right –
MB: - eight Democrats that voted with the Republicans. They’re al-- Nancy Pelosi’s already flipping them, and so now she’s got to get to fifteen. Let me tell you, they will, they will spare no expense, it’ll be millions of dollars. They rent a mob, like this protest they’re gonna have tonight at my office –
JL: Who’s leading the protest, or who’s organizing it, do you know?
MB: Ah, you know I don’t know if it’s - undoubtedly MoveOn will have their fingers in it - but it’s the D-triple-C, the Democrat Congressional Committee -
JL: Yeah –
MB: - the Democrat National Party, probably working hand in glove with MoveOn.
JL: This is – people are going to have to understand something. This is not health care for poor people.
MB: No (laughs)
JL: We already have that.
MB: No are you, are you kidding me? We’re talking people making $83,000 a year. That’s rich people in Minnesota -
JL: (talking over MB) Well what they’re trying to do, Michele – you know what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to get us all in a system. So naturally you have to go up from Medicaid, up even from MNCare, and here in Minnesota we took the SCHIP money, tacked it onto MNCare, because we already had a duplicative program so we could insure adults and illegal immigrants.
MB: And it’s the wrong solution because what we want is to not have government – government be the provider of health care. We want people to own their own health care so that they go out in the private market, buy it cheaper, buy only the product that they want. That’s the legislation that I’m introducing, that has people being able to take their own tax money to do that.
JL: Right. Exactly. And that is the charge. You know, and in this is the tragedy of it all. Here we go again, playing defense because we debate about liberal proposals instead of offering a solution (talks over MB) like the one you just described. The president has said this, he said this a year and a half ago, and you know, nobody’s picked up on it. We need to lead with health care, we can win on this issue if we go for reforming the tax code, having nationwide markets, getting rid of the mandates and letting people own their health insurance like they own their automobile insurance.
MB: And, and the fact is, we could turn around the health care, quote, crisis, in our -
JL: - overnight –
MB: country –
JL: - overnight
MB: - in like, a month’s time. All we have to do is some simple changes -
JL: - I know
MB: - in our federal tax code –
JL: - I know –
MB: You change it, and all of a sudden, guess what? The crisis is gonna go away, because we won’t have health care-
JL: But if the crisis goes away, the Democrats won’t be able to nationalize anything, and (talks over MB) and that’s why they won’t allow those plans – here’s what needs to happen –
MB: And if we’re bold about this, we’re gonna win in spades.
JL: Right
MB: if people are told about this
JL: You gotta have leadership and we don’t have it at the gubernatorial level, we don’t have it at the Senate level, and frankly, we need it, we need it at the presidential level. We need a presidential candidate to get, to get with the House Republicans and hold a couple of press conferences and say, I, Rudy Giuliani, I, Fred Thompson, I – I, Mitt Romney, stand behind these people. Where’s the leadership there, that’s what drives me nuts –
MB: Well, you know that’s a good idea. I was supposed to be at the White House this afternoon, meeting with the President. It got cancelled because of this ridiculous SCHIP vote, but I’m gonna go back there Wednesday, and I’ll bring that up with him, Jason, when I go, that why don’t we go ahead and do that. Take that idea that he had.
JL: Right
MB: And let’s go ahead and go forward with it because if they wannna take this fight on I say “Bring it on”
JL: Right
MB: We want this fight.
JL: We should want it.
MB: We can win on this fight.
JL: I think, I think you’re right about that and all people need to know, Congresswoman Bachmann, is the people running the commercials in advocacy of SCHIP are the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, the same outfit that underwrote the Hillary Care town meetings in 1994.
MB: And they’re the same people who gave us the problem.
JL: You got it.
MB: These are the people who created the problem, and now they’re going to give us the solution? I -
JL: (interrupting) Congresswoman Bachmann, we’re up against the clock but stay strong out there and please do urge the President to get involved and urge any presidential candidate to get involved and back up the very brave House Republicans - right now the House Republican caucus of which Michele is a part, is the only thing standing between us and nationalized health care in America. I’m Jason Lewis, thanks Michele –
--ENDS-- |
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