CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

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CHETRY: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour right now.

Tea Party favorite Congresswoman Michele Bachmann -- she's been very critical of the Obama administration, voted no on a bill that passed last week to avoid a government shutdown, and she's called the administration a gangster government, also accusing the administration of tucking more than $100 billion in spending in the health care bill.

Congressman Michele Bachmann -- Congresswoman -- I'm going to be (INAUDIBLE) with that one this morning -- joins me. Thanks for being here.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: Good morning. Thank you.

CHETRY: I want to tackle this question about de-funding President Obama's health care. You say that anything in terms of agreeing to a budget has to come with that basic tenet, that it's going to de-fund government health care. At the cost of a government shutdown?

BACHMANN: Well, I think what happened was absolutely unconscionable. Members of the House and members of the Senate weren't told, much less the public weren't told that $105,464,000,000 was tucked away in order to implement Obamacare.

You can't do that. You can't ask members of Congress to vote for a bill and not tell them a material part of what's in the bill. It's a violation of our form of government, because under our form of government, we debate, we know what's in a bill, the people know what's in a bill.

One hundred five billion is a lot of money. That equals to about $1,000 for every household in the United States. To not tell members of Congress that they're going -- that their vote equals spending $105 billion is unconscionable.

And we didn't know about it. A report came out in February that told us that there was $105 billion in spending tucked in the bill. No one knew because it was all broken up and scattered here and there. And no one knew.

Part of the reason --

CHETRY: I want to ask you -- but I want to ask you a couple of questions about that. BACHMANN: Part of the reason is because we didn't get the bill until just a couple of hours before we voted on it. You can't read 2,900 pages in a couple of hours. And that's why you have to read these bills before you vote on them.

CHETRY: Well, I want to ask you about that, because, first of all, the initial House bill did pass in early November, as you said. But the final version didn't pass both chambers until mid-March. So, technically, there were three months to go over the finer points of the bill.

Are you saying it was not feasible to be able to discover this -- your number, $105 billion, in appropriations until 2019 in those three months?

BACHMANN: Well, remember, on the Senate side, they voted on the bill Christmas Eve. And they did not get the bill until just a couple of hours before. In the House, we were debating the House version of the bill. At the last minute, we were given the Senate version of the bill to vote on. So, we had spent all of our time working on the House version. And it wasn't until the very end when we got the Senate version and that's what --

CHETRY: Well, what about the ultimate passage in March, then -- the time between that?

BACHMANN: Right, right.

CHETRY: You're saying there was no time doing that?

BACHMANN: We were looking at the House version at that time. And then at the last minute, we were given the Senate version. But all you have to do is look at your CNN tapes. There was no mention anywhere in the media of $105 billion in spending to implement Obamacare.

CHETRY: Now, I want to ask you about that number, as well because you're claiming the $105 billion and, you know -- I mean, you have the paperwork.

BACHMANN: That's according to the Congressional Research Service.

CHETRY: Right.

BACHMANN: We've got a grid that is $105 billion and that's according to the Congressional Research Service.

CHETRY: So, let's just take that at face value. So, we're talking about this $105 billion, but the Congressional Budget Office, when they analyzed the whole bill, they say that, including these appropriations, it still reduces the deficit by $130 billion between 2012 and 2019. And they say repealing the bill -- and this is again according to the Congressional Budget Office -- you end up increasing by $145 billion during the same time period.

So, what are getting at by fighting over the bill, if in the end, repealing it is going to add more to the deficit?

BACHMANN: Actually, it will be just the opposite and everyone knows that. That Obamacare --

CHETRY: You don't agree with the Congressional Budget Office?

BACHMANN: Well, the Congressional Budget Office has actually said that it's going to cost more money to implement Obamacare. So, there might be two different reports that are conflicting.

Because remember, President Obama famously said that we'd all see about a $2,500 decrease in the price of our premiums. We're actually now seeing spikes of 20 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent in our premiums. We were told that this was a mandate, not a tax. Now, President Obama's arguing it's a tax, not a mandate.

Now, we have over 1,000 people that have gotten waivers to Obamacare. So, we're not getting what we were promised. And it's incredulous to believe that 30 million more people will be getting government subsidized health care and it's not going to cost more money. Of course, it's going to cost more money. And the people that were paying for health care before will be the ones who are paying more later.

CHETRY: All right. Let's get to some of the other issues before you --

BACHMANN: The moral outrage -- the moral outrage is the fact that the American people should have been told that $105 billion would be dedicated between now and 2019 to implement this bill. That's a crucial piece of information that wasn't told to senators or congressmen or to the American people. That's a fraud.

CHETRY: I want to ask you just a couple of other questions.

BACHMANN: And you can't do that in our system of government.

CHETRY: You have called the president -- you said that he's running a gangster government. What did you mean by that?

BACHMANN: Well, for instance, when the White House had the automobile task force and they issued 3,400 pink slips to car dealerships across the country and effectively put car dealerships out of business overnight. That was wrong. And people who were politically well- connected to the White House or had some sort of a political pull, they got their dealerships back.

CHETRY: Well, what does gangster mean? What does that term mean?

BACHMANN: Well, crony capitalism. Crony capitalism. So that if you have a political connection to this White House or to the administration or to Washington, D.C., you fair better than someone else. The 1,000 waivers to Obamacare -- if you're connected politically to the White House, people have been able to get waivers. And if you aren't, you can't.

We're a government of equal --

CHETRY: I want to ask you -- I want to say a quick question.

BACHMANN: I just to mention, we're a government of equal protection under the law. We should all be equal under the law. Not if you're politically well-connected. That's what I mean about the corruption in Washington.

CHETRY: Do you think he's done anything right? I know that you've been a critic of President Obama. What about his decision to basically re-enforce the Bush era thoughts on Guantanamo, meaning that military tribunals are going to continue?

BACHMANN: I agree with that. I think the president's making the right step. That is the most logical place to hold these tribunals and I applaud the president for doing that. I think that's a very good decision.

CHETRY: So, time is running out in terms of -- time is ticking, let's put it that way -- about we're under a year now until the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Are you going to run for president in 2012?

BACHMANN: Well, I haven't made a decision either way. I haven't made a decision to jump in and I haven't made a decision to get out. And I've gone to some of the primary states for the reason, really, to go and talk about the bigger issues that we have to focus on. Our nominee will be chosen and probably about four states.

CHETRY: Are you happy with some of the other candidates out there on the GOP side?

BACHMANN: I think that we'll have a very good contest and a very good field of candidates that are running, but I think that it's important that people keep in mind with all of the issues that we have in front of us that we need a nominee who really understands the times that we live in, who knows what to do in response to that, and who has the political courage to do what has to be done.

Very tough decisions we've made, and I think our nominee needs to be willing to be a one-term president if that's necessary in order to get the job done, because we have to get back on a good financial footing, and we have to get gasoline prices back down to, I hope, below $2 a gallon.

CHETRY: When are you going to make your call? I mean, is there a time frame?

BACHMANN: I think there's a natural time frame, and I think probably by about early summer, a decision should be made. I think that's kind of a national timeframe. Yes, I think, a decision will be made by then.

CHETRY: All right. It's great having you. Great to talk to you this morning.

BACHMANN: Thank you.

CHETRY: Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, always a pleasure. Thanks for coming in.

BACHMANN: Thank you.

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