RSS Feed MenuIn a speech to attendees of Americans for Prosperity’s ‘Defending the American Dream’ summit on Friday, Tea Party leader Rep. Michele Bachmann touted her business experience and proposed that every member of Congress should have run a business for at least three years before being eligible for election.
“I’m here to say that every person, before you run for Congress, you have to run a business for three years,” Bachmann told the crowd, to wild applause.
Bachmann, who owns a mental health care practice in Stillwater, Minnesota, said that business owners better understand how to create jobs:
My husband and I also started a business. We’re not a big deal. But we did what every American usually does to start a business. We got our capital together, we drew a little bit of money out of our account. We started our business –we’ve got two locations for our one business, fifty employees, we sign both sides of the check. We get it!
Strikingly, Bachmann also has an ownership stake in a family farm, which has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in government subsidies.
Bachmann’s speech also involved a political swipe at Michele Obama’s work on combating obesity:
In less than twelve months time, President Obama increased spending… by a whopping twenty percent. Twenty percent in less than one year’s time. And the First Lady is focusing on morbid obesity? … Let’s have her husband focus on the morbid obesity here in the federal budget!
Much of Bachmann’s speech reflected her frustration with the ongoing economic troubles in the United States. But she had particular disdain for the government’s deficit and debt projections, and why this might lead to an ‘international currency’:
With all due respect, President Obama has foolishly spent us into a debtors’ prison. So much so that the Chinese dumped about $34 billion of our debt, and they’ve been continuing to lecture us about getting our financial house in order.
If you have noticed, if you read the Financial Times or whatever publication is out there, over and over again, between China, Russia and other nations, they’re now calling for a new international currency and a new international means of exchange. This is not a freak story, this is reality.
Bachmann was clearly held in high esteem by the attendees of the conference. Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips introduced her as, along with Sarah Palin, one of the potential ‘next Ronald Reagans’.
There’s been much discussion about who the next Ronald Reagan might be. It’s always an interesting discussion… [Americans for Prosperity New Jersey State Director] Steve Lonegan said, “I believe that the next Ronald Reagan is a conservative woman,” … a leader from Congress is with us tonight, and that’s Michele Bachmann.
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TerryF98 // Aug 30, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Was it a Lunatic asylum?
If so and she was in charge then the old saying is true. The patients are in charge of the lunatic asylum.
Non-Contributor // Aug 30, 2010 at 3:57 pm
The teabaggers complain about losing their rights but have no issue with just making crap up as they go along. What percentage of the population you think has actually had the opportunity to run a business. What a retard.
Bachmann: Congress Needs Business Sense – FrumForum at Satellite Broadband Internet // Aug 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm
[...] Bachmann: Congress Needs Business SenseFrumForumStrikingly, Bachmann also has an ownership stake in a family farm, which has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in government subsidies. … [...]
mikewaz // Aug 30, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Congress needs business sense? Would that be the same business sense that George W. Bush borrowed from his good friend and major campaign donor Ken Lay, the CEO of Enron?
Oldskool // Aug 30, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Why say “with all due respect” after spouting lies and half-truths? It’s disrespectful.
And really, aren’t a huge number of businesses like her farm subsidized by the government? Ross Perot’s sure is, every sport owner in the country is, most every medical facility in the country is, along with mega-farms, insurance companies, etc.
Hey Bachman, start a business with employees who didn’t go to gubmint schools, or drive on gubmint highways, or took out a Pell grant, etc, … then you can trash talk.
Rhetoric FAIL.
LB // Aug 30, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I weep for humanity every time this woman speaks.
forkboy1965 // Aug 30, 2010 at 10:04 pm
One look at the number of businesses that quickly go OUT of business would suggest that running a business isn’t the same thing is being smart. Or prosperous. Or anything related to government because government isn’t LIKE business.
Often government gets to do those things businesses don’t want to do or can’t do efficiently or effectively enough to make them profitable.
This woman is a first rate moron.
TJ Parker // Aug 31, 2010 at 8:18 am
This woman is a first rate moron.
You’re too kind.
armstp // Aug 31, 2010 at 9:46 am
How soon we forget that the private sector got this country into this economic mess!
And now everyone wants the government to bail them out!
People bitchin and complaining about the government not doing enough to create jobs, especially conservatives. That seems ironic.
GonePostal // Aug 31, 2010 at 9:53 am
I can’t believe she owns a mental heath care practice. The woman who was afraid the census would be used to roundup Americans. That’s mind blowing.
JohnnyA // Aug 31, 2010 at 11:03 am
Bachmann aside, it is an interesting idea. About 15 years ago, I agreed with the idea of running congress/the government like a business and in some ways I still do. Some of the most successful companies can serve as a lesson to our own government: fiscal responsibility, focus on long term strategy and creating long term value, discipline, innovation, attention to detail, companies that stand for something besides just making money. But should we run the country like some of the others? Failed dot coms, failed financial institutions, Enron, the family pizzeria down the street, companies focused on this quarter’s financial results with no eye to creating lasting value?
Personally, I think it’s the citizens that should think of the government as a business and the elected officials as our employees. When hiring someone, it’s important that they share your values but putting them through an ideological purity test is counter productive. I’m more interested in whether they have applicable experience and will be able to work productively with others to get things done without wasting my money and use good judgement to handle individual situations based on their merits. Instead of being a loud talking head that impedes progress.
Rabiner // Sep 1, 2010 at 4:32 am
“Bachmann, who owns a mental health care practice in Stillwater, Minnesota, said that business owners better understand how to create jobs:”
That’s just classic. I mean of all the businesses for her to run it’s a mental health care practice. Is she not only an owner but also a client?
Bachmann files paperwork to run. - Page 11 - US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum // Jun 14, 2011 at 10:22 pm
[...] taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in government subsidies. Hypocrisy, thy name is Bachmann. Bachmann: Congress Needs Business Sense | FrumForum __________________ The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the [...]