The Teabagger Choice: Michele Bachmann

DFL Press Release:

The Republican Tea Party Choice: Michele Bachmann

GOP endorses Minnesota’s most absentee and ineffective representative

St. Paul (March 20, 2010) — Today, the Republican Party of Minnesota will officially endorse Michele Bachmann for Congress in Minnesota’s sixth congressional district. The DFL Party released this statement from Chair Brian Melendez:

“As people across the sixth district and around the country struggle to find work during these difficult economic times, it’s unthinkable that someone could take a job for granted. Representatives and senators across the country are redoubling their efforts to improve conditions for their hardworking constituents — but not Michele Bachmann. Representative Bachmann is simply not there for her constituents — not in the 6th district, and not in Washington.

“Solutions to the complex problems facing our nation today require a substantive debate and a willingness to put in a hard day’s work. Representative Bachmann’s propensity for scare tactics, combined with her absenteeism, show that she has made the choice not to do the people’s work but rather to represent the far-right fringes of her party. But the Republican Party has again chosen her as its standard-bearer, so today I am proud to be a Democrat, and I look forward to working against Minnesota’s most absentee and ineffective representative.”

Who Does Michele Bachmann Work For? Not Minnesotans.

• The people of Minnesota’s sixth congressional district deserve a leader who will show up to work, but are currently saddled with Minnesota’s most absent and ineffective representative, Michele Bachmann.



• The sixth district has the highest rate of foreclosures in Minnesota. People are struggling under the burden of skyrocketing health-care costs, worried about losing their jobs or finding new ones. But Michele Bachmann is never there for her constituents.



• Representative Bachmann has missed more votes than any member of the Minnesota delegation to Congress — more than 100 in this Congress alone. [GovTrack, accessed 3/19/10]



• Representative Bachman sits on only one House committee, but she has missed 17% of votes. [Minnesota Independent, 3/19/10]



• Michele Bachmann admitted to having accomplished nothing in her time in Congress. She told the St. Cloud Times that, “I don’t have substantive bills that I have passed.” [St. Cloud Times, 2/14/10]



• Michele Bachmann continually uses partisan rhetoric, fear-mongering and obstructionism to do the will of big-insurance and big-business CEOs, rather than addressing the needs of those in her district.



• Bachmann has made a practice of voting down legislation which would provide much-needed help to American families. She voted no on legislation to limit foreclosures, drop student loan interest rates, extend SCHIP coverage to 9 million uninsured children and raise the minimum wage.



• Bachmann declared that the census had become “very personal and very intricate” and she would not be completing her form. The census is a practice that was mandated by the United States Constitution and has been in use since 1790. [Washington Times, 6/17/09]



• Bachmann falsely warned that the Obama administration’s re-ordering of America’s food supply could mean that the White House decides “how many calories we consume or what types of food we consume.”[C-SPAN, 9/14/09]



• Bachmann implied on national television that President Obama had anti-American views, saying, “Most Americans are wild about America and they are very concerned to have a president who doesn’t share those values.” [The Huffington Post, 10/17/08]



• Bachmann promoted fear about death panels saying, “These unelected bureaucracies will decide what we can and can’t get in future health-insurance policy. That’s why they’re called death panels.” [Media Matters, 12/23/09]