Rep. Michele Bachmann
(R-MN)
CPAC 2011
Washington, DC
February 10, 2011
[4president.org TRANSCRIPT]
Good
morning.
Good morning. Good morning CPAC. How’s
everyone
doing? You’re looking great this morning. Thank you for the
invitation. Oh, wait a minute someone told me I needed to find
the right
camera. So let me see. Okay, all you SNL fans I know where it is. I
think
we’re good to go. Okay, great.
Good
morning
CPAC and thank you again for inviting me to be here with
you. Doesn’t it feel great? It’s a new day in Washington,
DC.
We have so much to be grateful for, and I want to commend you,
David. I understand
this is the most astounding attendance that you’ve had. 11,000
strong and
growing over the weekend. Our movement is a growing movement,
it’s a big
movement and I’m excited to be a part of the family. Because I am
looking right now at the problem solvers of America. That’s who
you
are. You’re an exciting group of people. You believe
in problem
solving and I can feel your energy that’s here. It’s real.
It’s exciting and it’s something that’s going to continue
building all weekend long. Because already after everything you
did in the
last election, you've already changed America for the better.
Just
having
the House of Representatives go into conservative hands was
a huge down payment for bringing our country back and I thank you from
the bottom of
my heart for everything that you’ve done. We’re also a very broad
based coalition, and some of you who are gathered here today you are
all about—your
passion is about fiscal conservatism and I am one of you. And for
some of you
that are here your passion is about defending the moral values that
grounded
this country and I am one of you. And some of you who are here
are all about national security and making sure that we continue our
legacy of peace through
strength. I am one of you. This is something we need to be
proud of and
be thankful for.
We
are excited how we work together in this three legged stool of ours
and so many of you got off the couch in this last election. And
you decided
that you were not going to take it anymore. And I just want a
show of hands.
How many of you before this election were just so so about politics in
our
nation? How many of you this was the first time you ever got
involved in
politics? Let’s see a show of hands. Stand up, stand
up. Let’s
take a look and give you a round of applause. Thank you for
joining the
family. Thank you for what you’ve done. You’re amazing
people, and
I want to thank you because because of what you did you have been a
part of the down
payment on bringing back liberty in this country.
And
look
what you accomplished. You helped win 87 new seats in the
House of Representatives. 87. It’s a record. And you
helped pry that
big gavel out of Speaker Pelosi’s hands. Did anybody see
that? She
wasn’t real willing to let John Boehner have it. But, he got it.
He got
it and we’re thankful. Not only did she give up that luxurious
private
jet of hers, by the way, that you all paid for, and John Boehner by the
way is
flying commercial these days. Oh yeah, it’s new day, it’s a new
day. But more importantly Speaker Pelosi gave up the national
credit card that
had an unlimited balance on it apparently and no ATM fees. It’s
out of
her hands, she doesn’t have it anymore.
And
as
well as we did in the House, it was also awesome what happened
in the United States Senate, because you helped deliver victories in
the Senate
like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Florida Senator Marco
Rubio. Pennsylvania
Senator Pat Toomey. Utah Senator Mike Lee. Arkansas Senator John
Boozman. Indiana Senator Dan Coats.
Kansas
Senator
Jerry Moran. Missouri Senator Roy Blunt. New
Hampshire
Senator Kelly Ayotte. North Dakota Senator John Hoeven. Ohio
Senator Rob
Portman. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson.
Yay. Illinois Senator Mark Kirk. That’s thirteen new
Republican Senators in this
last election. We only need four more Senators and we win the
United States
Senate. And then Harry Reid will have the very rich opportunity
to join Speaker
Pelosi, now Nancy Pelosi in the minority. Yay.
And
more
importantly common sense and a new hopefully conservative
majority will run the United States Senate and don’t think a
conservative
Senate wouldn’t be a huge change from decades of leadership here in
Washington, DC.
But it get’s even better. Take a look at the Governors seats in
this last
election. After these Governors seats, we have 29 out of the 50 seats
are in
Republican hands. 29 Governors seats. 20 are Democrat and
there's always an
independent out there somewhere. So even more good news and I
think this
actually might be some of the best news of all. In our state House
seats and
our state Senate seats, because of all of the work that you did, we
flipped 680
seats in the state Houses and Senates in the country. That’s a
record
number by the way.
And
what’s
even more electrifying about these numbers is the fact
that all of the work that you did paid off this year in the once every
ten
years redistricting cycle. So the Governors and all of the
legislatures
control the political lines that will determine these races for the
next ten
years will be drawn this year with these new Governors and
Representatives
controlling the chambers all across this country. If their was
ever a time to
make a change, this was it and you did it. Because you not only
supplied the
brain power for a lot of these elections, you were the hands on and the
feet on
that actually went and did the door knocking, you drove people to the
polls,
because this was a historic change election. And this was the
change that we
were hoping for. And you did it. So give yourself a much deserved
round of
applause. I do.
And
I
think after all that work; it is all together fitting and proper
that we throw ourselves a huge party. And so here we’re going to
party.
Conveniently enough, I’m throwing you a party today at 5:30. So
come one,
come all, the bar tab is mine. Come to my party. It
starts— You’re all
welcome. All 11,000 of you, so one drink per limit. So come
at 5:30 today, you're all welcome. I want to shake you hand
though and
I personally want to thank
everyone of you for everything you did. It paid off. So
let’s party
hearty today, because after this weekend we need to start focusing on
step two
of taking the country back.
As
much as we’re patting ourselves on the back this weekend and
we were successful, now it’s step two. And step one will be for
naught if
we don’t successfully complete step two. Are you savvy? Are
you savvy?
Because we have to win a conservative Senate. The same type of
Rand
Pauls and Marco Rubios that came in this year, we need more of the
same to come in to the Senate, so it’s a conservative Senate, not just
a
Republican Senate. Can you hear me? A conservative Senate
going forward. And the
all important must have for 2012 is this—making
Barack Obama a
one-term President. Right. Stand up. Stand up.
Stand up. I think you’re
up for it. I am too. This is it. This is the real
world. This is when it
counts. You are up for it. That’s why it’s important.
That’s
why all of our chips are on 2012. This is it. You’re up for
it.
I’m in. You're in.
So,
why
is it so important? Why are we on our feet? Why are we
up for
2012? It’s important for this reason. Because your future
is
personally tied in to the results of the next election. It’s that
important. I want to give you just a few facts. When the
liberals took
over the House of Representatives, the national debt was 8 trillion
dollars,
that was January of 2007. 8 trillion dollars. Even for
liberals that’s a
lot of money. That’s how much it was. But during the next
four years that the
liberals held sway here in our nation’s capital, the nation’s
credit card, get this, the liberals drove the debt up another 6
trillion
dollars to now 14 trillion and we’re being asked once again to raise
the
debt ceiling. You’ve heard about that? Raise the debt
ceiling. Now think
about this. Think about the context.
It
took this government 230 years from 1776 until 2006—230 years from
the inception of the nation until 2006—our national debt was a heart
palpitating 8 trillion dollars. We were all biting our
fingernails, very
worried about it. And in only four years time with a Speaker
Pelosi, a Harry
Reid, the liberals increased that amount by a whopping 75%. What
it took us 230
years to accumulate. And that spending spree caught the attention
and the
imagination of everyone in this country last November. It caught
their
attention, and thanks to you and your enthusiasm, the American people,
Republicans, independents, Libertarians, even Democrats went to the
polls and
said stop. Enough. We’re not going to go down this road
anymore of debt
accumulation. And the numbers people over at the Office of
Management and
Budgets are now telling us that if President Obama wins another
four-year term—. Now is
that going to happen? Okay, let’s be clear about that CPAC
family.
Let’s be clear. We will be in debt to the tune of 21 trillion
dollars.
That’s six years from now. Remember, four years ago we were 8
trillion. Six
years from now we will be at 21 if Barack Obama wins another term and
goes on
his trajectory.
As
troubling as all of these figures are to us, there is one segment
however that is not worried about this high level of debt
accumulation. And
that you might say are our friendly Chinese bankers. They’re not
worried
about this. You may know that the President of China is named
Hu. His name is
President Hu. And with all the money that we owe China, I think
we might rightly say
“Hu’s” your daddy. Right. “Hu’s” your daddy.
Now
let
me just give another living example of what a million, a
billion, a trillion sound like. Because I’m up here standing
waving a red
flag saying a trillion dollars is
like a
way amount of money. Well it is. If
you take a million dollars and you convert it to seconds of time, a
million
seconds equals 11 ½ days. If you take a billion seconds
and convert a billion
seconds into time that equals 32 years. There’s a difference
between
millions and billions. But there’s even a greater difference
between
billions and trillions. If you convert a trillion seconds in to
time that equals
32,000 years. So when we’re talking trillions going from 8
trillion to 14
to 21, this is a stunning level of debt that we have never even
imagined before
in the calculus of recent history.
So
let me explain what that level of debt could mean to you
personally.
According to the National Center of Policy Analysis in 2009 they said
that
college age students today—. Do we have any college age students
here today?
Yes, yes, you’ll all be at my party today. One drink, one drink
limit. In
your peak earning—. I mean it too, I really mean it. In
your
peak earning—. I’ve got to save something here, I am a
conservative. In
your peak earning years you will looking at paying 37% of everything
you make
to the government just to satisfy Social Security and Medicare.
37%. That’s more than a third of your income just to pay for
that.
But, now
wait, just realize that doesn’t include what you will owe to the
federal
government for your federal income tax portion. And that could
easily be
another 25% of your income and if you can do the math. Pull out
your
calculator. That’s 62% of your income, just your federal income
tax and
your Medicare and Social Security portion of what you make. But
now that
doesn’t include your state income tax and that could be another 8% for
a lot of
you. But that doesn’t include what you pay in sales taxes.
That
won’t include what you pay in gas taxes or local property taxes or
telephone taxes or cell phone taxes. Do you want me to go
on? This goes on and
on and on all the way to death taxes. They get you coming and
they get you going. And if
you add all of this up, you college students here today, you are
looking at 70-75%
of your income taken away by the government in taxes in your peak
earning
years.
I’m
a
federal tax layer; that’s what I did for a living in
the real world. I have a doctorate degree, a post-doctorate degree in
tax law.
All I did was practice tax law. And I saw the devastating impact
of high taxes
on individuals, on business people, on farmers. This is
real. These are real
numbers. This isn’t just something that somebody’s trying to in a
melodramatic way conjure up and scare you with. This is your
future. This is
your reality. That’s why this isn’t like the Green Bay Packers or
the Steelers, like the Republicans or Democrats, and whose team is
going to win?
That’s not what this is about. This is about the kind of America
we’re going to have and the kind of life that you will have and the
kind
of future you will have if 2012 goes other than what all of us are
hoping in
the next few years. Because what 75% tax rate means for you quite
literally is
that three-fourths of your work day will be spent working to pay Uncle
Sam and
you’ll be living off 25% of your salary.
So
let me ask you a question. How are you going to pay for a home
mortgage on 25% of your salary? How are you going to pay for your
car payment
on 25% of your salary? Or buy food on 25% of your salary?
Or pay for your
energy bill? Or your electric bill?
Or
more importantly, how are you going to pay for iTunes downloads on
25% of your salary?
Then
there's
this monstrosity called Obamacare. Oh yes, I’m there,
I’m with you. That created 159 new regulatory boards and
commissions. So
just realize this over 2,000 page bill, that nobody read by the
way.
Nobody read this bill. This 2,000 page bill that the President
signed has
already generated over 6,000 pages of new rules. So don’t think
that we
already have a law. This is a law that will never end. It
is going to grow and
grow and grow. And it won’t be 6,000 pages of rules. No, it
will be tens
of thousands of pages of rules. Because just like we hear the
liberals talk
about the living Constitution. You've heard that? These
laws are quote “living
laws.” So it isn’t what we vote on anymore, when we put our
little
card in the machine and we go red or we go green. It’s what all
of the
bureaucrats behind the curtain continually conjure up. And
Obamacare is the
never-ending liberal gift that keeps on giving towards liberalism.
And
as
bad as it is, it’s only the beginning. Which
wouldn’t be a problem apparently if you’re one
of the more than 700 people
who’ve gotten a waiver from Obamacare. Have you heard about
this?
This is not exactly equal justice under the laws. Over 700 privileged
unions or
companies have been given a waiver from these crippling mandates under
Obamacare. So I guess under President Obama’s way of thinking,
some of us are a little more equal
than others under Obamacare. And I’ll tell you what I like, I
think I’d
like to have a waiver from the last two years of the Obama
administration. Are
their any takers out there? I want a waiver. I want a
waiver.
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. And Obamacare is quite
clearly the
crown jewel of socialism. And repealing it is the driving
motivation of my
life. The first political breath I take every morning is to
repeal Obamacare.
You too. Repeal now. Repeal now. Thank you.
And
I
think the reason why we are all so terribly motivated to make
sure that this terrible piece of legislation gets repealed is because
probably
more than any other piece of legislation passed, this is the
legislation that
has potential for diminishing our quality of life, quite literally
making
life and death decisions for all of us for the rest of our lives, if we
don’t repeal this bill.
Because
President
Obama’s socialistic program of bailouts and
takeovers puts bureaucrats in charge of more of the private sector,
giving us
more regulations, more laws, more mandates, more burdens on the
nation’s
job creators and owners. I’m a job creator. My husband and I,
we’ve
created over 50 jobs in our state. We are so stinking proud of
that, that
we’ve been able to do that. And you’ve been able to do
that. And we
want to make sure more people across this country can do realize that
dream of
starting a business and doing what they were born to do.
Because
unfortunately
under this regime that President Obama’s
put into place, it is a formula for destruction of job creation and
it’s
an agenda that does jeopardize our free market system. Because it
does two
things. It attacks our core values of incentives that drive
growth and personal
responsibility. Can you imagine, what do we get by taking away
people’s
personal responsibility for their actions? All we have to do is
look at the Clinton administration.
Say no more. I only say that because President Clinton came out
and said last
night that I live in a parallel universe when it comes to my
understanding of
Obamacare. Do we want to talk about parallel universes for a
moment?
Socialism
kills
job creation everywhere it rears its ugly head,
except for government, it rears its ugly head. And we are
witnessing
unemployment for over 20 months in excess of 9%. In fact Gallup
came out and said the current
unemployment is actually at 9.9%. And when the only jobs that we
are growing is
in government, when that music stops, it is game over. And the
game doesn’t
end very well. And we have real life example of where this
socialistic path is
taking us. Exhibit A. Greece. Take a look at
Greece. Here you had people in the
street rioting because they wanted more government. And why were
they rioting?
Because their retirement age was going to go from age 61 to 63.
Oh
those evil bureaucrats. That is the end result of socialism, when
the demand equation knows no bounds. Or Exhibit B. Spain.
Spain has the
highest unemployment right now in Europe. Remember, President
Obama
told us early on his
administration, we have to be more like Spain. Do you remember
that? We
got
to be more like Spain.
We’ve got to put into place the
wind generation and all the things that
Spain’s
about, because that’s the future. I don’t know about you, but I
don’t
want 22% unemployment in the United States. That’s Spain’s
reality
right now.
We
don’t want to be Spain,
we want to be America.
We are the indispensable nation of the world. The indispensable
nation of the
world is America.
And socialism might sell well in a Harvard faculty lounge, but when it
comes
to finding a job, not so much, not so much. And the moral tragedy
I believe
personally of President Obama’s agenda is not that only that his tax
and
spending agenda is consuming most of what your parents and grandparents
took a
lifetime to build up and what the current workforce is producing.
I think the
most egregious moral wrong of all is that today’s government is
intentionally consuming the future labors of generations of Americans
that
aren’t even born.
This
is
unbelievable what’s happening, because you need to
consider that no previous generation—not the heroes of the
Revolutionary
War, not the heroes of the Civil War, not the survivors of World War I
or World
War II or the Great Depression or Korea
or Vietnam—none of these previous generations has left any subsequent
generation so tied
up in debt that their very sustenance was already spoken for, before
they even
had a chance to come into this world. And it’s baffling to me,
it’s
baffling that this wasn’t just any nation that did this. This is
our
nation that’s done this, a great nation like ours. One that has
reached
the absolute unparalleled heights of the world’s lone superpower
status.
We are one that is the world’s leading innovator in inventions, with
the
largest economy, the finest universities.
We
would choose an option for the future that’s anything other
than putting the best interests of this generation first? Could
we be so
selfish? No generation has been more selfish than the current
generation that’s
been running Washington DC. And it’s time we said it.
That’s not compassion. That’s selfishness.
And this is what I
believe. It’s that you and your future are what matters to us
now. And
it’s not about building a welfare state. I think it’s building
your
state of well-being. That’s what we need to focus on.
Because I think you
deserve no less a shot at life than what your parents received, than
what your
grandparents received and that’s all coming back to why 2012 is so all
important.
Because
if
you do well, then America will do well and we’ll be
strong and we’ll be
secure. And you know it’s not all doom and gloom
here. Because we certainly aren’t
without solutions, in fact I have just a
couple of suggestions that will go a long way towards fixing our
economy. First
of all, the President could stop the EPA from implementing a cap and
trade
system that will destroy the future of energy creation in this
country. The
President could easily support a Balanced Budget Amendment going
forward. I’ve
signed on to it; he could sign on to it. You saw the Time magazine cover that
had Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. Not so much, maybe a little
short. If the
President wanted to prove he was Ronald Reagan, he could sign a
Balanced Budget
Amendment. And maybe we would agree.
The
President
could agree to an energy policy that actually increases
American energy production. We’re sitting on a gold mine here in
the United States.
We are the Saudi Arabia
of energy right here. It’s just illegal to access it. So
let’s get
off of our dependence on foreign oil. We’ve got all the energy we
could use
right here in the United States. Then the President could turn
back some of the 132 regulations that he put into place in the two
years that
he’s been on the job and more than 132 of his regulations will cost us
in
excess of 100 million dollars or more. Then the President could
repeal
Obamacare. He could support free market solutions, like medical
malpractice
reform. Really; not just say, really do it. And then allow all of
us to buy any
health care policy we want anywhere in the United States with no
minimum mandates.
You do that that attacks the root problem of health care which are the
cost
drivers. Free markets work, let them.
And
while
all of these economic threats are very real and they are—I have
been a witness on the front lines of history the last four years in
the United States House of Representatives. They are real, they
are disquieting, they are why
people all across this country didn’t even care about political
affiliation;
they came together under this broad heading and said hey we don’t like
what these guys are doing. We’ve got
to have something else. And while that is so
true and while we’ve come together, we need to remember, and we
can’t forget that there are other threats that loom as well.
Threats
to
the moral grounding of this nation and threats to our
national security. Because a wise man named Solomon once said
that a cord of
three strands is not easily broken. And any carpenter will tell
you that a
three-legged stool is strong and stable and it won’t tip over very
easily. And as important as these distressing economic concerns
are, we would
be wise to recall and not forget that for our conservative coalition to
be
victorious in 2012 it will take everyone of us and then some pulling
together
to bring the three legs of this conservative stool together. The
fiscal
conservative leg, the national security leg and the social conservative
leg to
work together. We cannot shun each other for 2012.
The
structural
integrity and the political appeal is not only rooted
in this fiscal discipline, but the social values and the philosophy of
peace
through strength. And I believe this is as valid today as it has
been for the
last 35 years. Some would have you believe however that the rise
of the tea party
and the outcome of last fall’s election means that conservatives stand
for only one thing and nothing more. And that’s reducing our
deficit and
shrinking government. And while that is absolutely vital and
important, I
strongly disagree that that’s all there is. And I believe that
most
conservatives agree with that as well.
Because
as
important as these spending cuts are, and by the way we need
a lot more of them than what we’re getting served up today. Such
a
narrowly based political agenda is neither appropriate to our times,
nor is it
politically conducive to a broad based appeal that will determine our
future
success. And we’re all about winning in 2012, so that’s why this
morning I am here to call on our movement, beginning here with you—you
are the
all important CPAC base, all 11,000 of you—to affirm our time tested
winning
platform that rests equally on all three legs.
I
believe in this coalition; I believe in this three-legged stool
that’s our winning combination. Because I believe you are
incredibly
talented. I believe that you are filled with excitement. I
believe you are motivated
for 2012. I believe like you that we need to win the triple crown
of 2012, which is holding on to the House of Representatives, winning a
conservative
Senate, and oh yeah baby, winning the White House in 2012. The
triple crown.
I
also believe that we can do this. I don’t think this is
standing up here and blowing happy smoke up here. I believe that
we can do
this. For one thing, you are all incredibly good looking.
And I’m up here
and I can see this. That fact alone, plus you’re talented, plus
you’re very excited, that needs to motivate us for 2012. I just
want you
to know, we can do this. We really can. We can’t mess up,
though. And one thing
that we’ve seen happen too frequently is defeat pulled from the jaws of
victory. Right. Have you been there? Have you seen
it? I have. It will not. It
cannnot. It must not. It simply cannot happen for 2012.
For
2012
we take the gains we have, we add to them. That is how we
will
get our fiscal house in order. That’s how we will stay grounded
in our
historic moral values. That’s how we will retain peace though
strength.
We live in a very different world today, and we have this tiny window
of
opportunity called 2012. Because if we don’t take back the White
House
and win the triple crown in 2012, that window of opportunity for
repealing
Obamacare may slam shut. It may slam shut. And so just like
the great people of
New Hampshire
believe “Live free or die.” That needs to be our watch word as
well.
Are
we
up? Are we going to stand up? Are we going to do
this? Is this
our moment? Is this our time? Do you believe? Do you
believe? Do you believe?
Okay, well then let’s do it. Let’s roll. 2012. Thank
you CPAC.
Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you for allowing me to
come. Thank you CPAC.
Thank you.