Michele Bachmann's Response to
President Obama's jobs speech
September 8, 2011
Michele Bachmann gave this response to President Obama's jobs speech in front of
a joint session of Congress. She said the President is politically paralyzed and
did not offer anything that hadn't been tried already before. She said the
President was using the platform for a personal political speech rather than
for the good of the America people.
"Candidate Obama promised to wipe out deficits and the
debt. Instead the President has increased the debt by over 6 trillion
dollars, and what do we have to show for it?
Permanent increases in the size of government, spending and debt,
with a greater dependency on government." - Michele
Bachmann
Text of Michele Bachmann's response to President Obama's jobs speech
Unfortunately, it seems, every time the President speaks, his policies have cost the American people jobs and future prosperity.
Tonight the President under the veil of one of the most sacred deliberative forums, a joint session of Congress, delivered another political speech where he doubled down on more of the same policies that are killing the economy.
Mr. President, what among your proposals was new? What here hasn’t already been tried and failed before?
While the President's speech comes on the heels of a trillion dollars of failed stimulus, bailouts, and temporary gimmicks aimed at creating jobs, the President continued to cling to the idea that government is the solution to creating jobs.
My conservative colleagues and I have been fighting over the last two and half years for pro growth policies.
I stand here tonight to say to the President, not only should Congress not pass your plan, I say, "stop; your last plan hasn't worked, it's hurting the American economy." Instead of temporary fixes, do what has proved to work in the past, permanent pro growth policies that are driven by the free market.
Today, unemployment is 9.1 percent. Job creation has literally been zeroed out with the worst jobs report in 66 years this last month. Since the President's failed trillion dollar stimulus we have lost over 2.5 million jobs while adding 416,000 government jobs. One in six Americans is now on food stamps, and the average time unemployed Americans are out of work is greater than 40 weeks. Housing values have fallen 19% from 2008 to the first quarter of this year. GDP growth was an anemic .4% in the first quarter and at 1% in the last and the dollar has lost 12 percent of its value.
These are not good times for the American people. Our patience for speeches, gimmicks and excuses has run out.
The only remedies the President knows are temporary, government directed fixes. And even if the President's plan passes, we already know it will fail. In practice, we haven't paid for his last trillion dollar jobs program and now his latest plan would have us embrace potentially over $400 billion in new government spending!
Spending taxpayer dollars on extending unemployment benefits has proved to add only 25 cents to GDP for every dollar we spend. Even the President's new economic advisor agrees that extending unemployment benefits discourages future employment.
Spending taxpayer dollars on extending the payroll tax holiday will reduce over 111 billion dollars to the Social Security trust fund this year and continuation of this policy will put social security checks to seniors at even greater risk.
Spending taxpayer dollars on more infrastructure projects failed to create lasting jobs in the last stimulus.
And, looming on the horizon is the full scale implementation of Obamacare that, according the Congressional Budget Office, will kill 800,000 jobs and steal over 500 billion from Medicare.
Candidate Obama promised to wipe out deficits and the debt. Instead the President has increased the debt by over 6 trillion dollars, and what do we have to show for it? Permanent increases in the size of government, spending and debt, with a greater dependency on government.
Four years ago President Bush's deficit was around 160 billion dollars; today, President Obama's is nearly ten times that amount.
The President and Vice-President's plan to spend us to prosperity has failed. And worse, they have stolen from a generation of Americans yet unborn, the consequences of which mean a near certainty of reduced choices and a dramatically downsized lifestyle for future generations from what we enjoy today.
Generational theft is a moral and ethical issue, and I care deeply about both the present generation and generations to come.
The President is politically paralyzed and philosophically incapable of doing what needs to be done.
I do agree, the President should take immediate action. But it is the nine following steps that will put us on a path to economic growth and put Americans back to work;
Repatriate American business dollars earned from overseas,
Massively cut spending and the size of government,
Repeal Obamacare, which is the government takeover of America’s healthcare system,
Cut taxes, including corporate taxes,
Repeal Dodd-Frank,
Repeal job killing regulations,
Increase exports by finalizing free trade agreements,
Spur new investment in America, inspire innovation,
Provide job creating energy solutions, including decreased regulations on developing new energy supplies from our abundant domestic energy resources.
The way forward needs to be based on permanent solutions grounded in the private sector. That is how we will once again restore economic prosperity to our country.
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"Iowa GOP politics watchers hashed over reasons why,
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or might fall flat..."
Sarah Palin makes #34 on Forbes' list of the World's 100
Most Powerful Women, beating out Diane Sawyer, Queen Elizabeth and Nancy Pelosi,
but falling behind Hillary Clinton, Michele Bachmann and Michelle Obama?
A violent videogame that allows players to shoot and kill "Tea
Party Zombies" called "Tea Party Zombies Must Die" has gained the
ire of conservatives everywhere. Targets include Michele Bachmann,
Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity...
Sarah Palin has to have this date in mind as she decides whether or not to run
for president in 2012. Deadlines for other states start to pile up after that as well.
In addition, many states require thousands of signatures, filing fees or petitions that
can be quite time consuming. Will she or won't she?
Normally sane Dick Morris thinks Palin is a great Republican spokesperson, but thinks her
candidacy would crash. Bachmann is more knowledgeable and the media would
go crazy against her, he says. Poooor Dick...
Michele Bachmann will give her own press conference to
respond to President Obama's jobs speech to Congress tonight. The GOP has
decided not to give it's typical response speech to the President since this
is not a State of the Union speech. Bachmann has come out strongly against
Obama's economic policies and will undoubtedly have a lot to say about
his proposals...
"ObamaCare is killing jobs. We know that from the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But I know it first-hand from
speaking to people... There are 47 percent of African-American youth
that are currently without jobs, 36 percent of Hispanic youth. I'm a mom.
I've raised five biological kids and 23 foster kids in my home. One thing
I know is that kids need jobs." - Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann continued to gain momentum over the summer in her
bid for the 2012 White House. She won the Iowa Straw Poll and made two very strong debate
performances in South Carolina and New Hampshire, but since Rick Perry joined the
race, her momentum has slowed and her numbers have been falling. She needs
a strong showing in tonight's California debate to turn things around...
Eight Republican presidential candidates will appear
tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley,
California. Michele Bachmann hopes to regain her status as a
viable candidate. She has lost donations and followers since
Rick Perry of Texas joined the race...
Republican presidential candidates were asked numerous questions at
Senator Jim Demint's "Palmetto Freedom Forum," including questions on
whether or not they would challenge the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade.
"If the Supreme Court, by a plurality of the justices,
may impose their own personal morality on the rest of the nation, then we are
quite literally being ruled by those individuals as opposed to giving our
consent to the people's representatives." - Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann has been slipping in the polls since Rick Perry joined
the 2012 race. A recent campaign staff shakeup has caused a lot of buzz
about internal campaign problems by politicos, but fundraising problems
may be the more serious issue and, as usual, many people think she is
being overhandled by campaign managers and not being allowed to be
herself...
"The U.S. Constitution does not mention education, and for good reasons that
modern evidence has only served to reinforce. Federal top-down control of education
has resulted in waste, abuse, mind-boggling bureaucratic troubles, and terrible
one-size-fits-all non-solutions. Taking money from individual taxpayers, circulating
it through the federal government, and then sending it back to schools is a great
idea, if your goal is to whittle down the power and effectiveness of every dollar
paid into the system..."
Michele Bachmann has condemned comments made by union leader Jimmy Hoffa after
he used curse words and metaphorical death language to encourage followers to
"take out" Tea Party members.
"When they're not on the attack on CNN, union bosses like Hoffa in Washington, DC,
are getting big returns on their election day influence, yielding unprecedented
power granted by Obama appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, and
costing Americans countless jobs in the process" - Michelle Bachmann