Michele Bachmann CPAC 2011 Speech, February 10, 2011
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.
Photo courtesy Eric Appleman, www.p2012.org
