Dialogues › Sleep of Reason › Michele Bachmann

Bachmann spent a summer working on an Israeli kibbutz before attending college. She earned her law degree at Oral Roberts University, and later earned a degree in tax law from the William & Mary School of Law before working for the IRS for five years.

Bachmann is married, has five children, and has provided foster care to 23 teenage girls. She and her husband own a Christian counseling practice, run by her husband. The clinic received nearly $30,000 from Minnesota government agencies between 2006 and 2010 in addition to at least $137,000 in federal payments and $24,000 in government grants for counselor training.

Bachmann and her husband have engaged in “sidewalk counseling” to deter women entering clinics from getting abortions. She opposes abortion except in cases or rape or incest.

She also opposes same sex marriage and described homosexuality is “sexual dysfunction,” “sexual identity disorder,” and “personal enslavement” that leads to “sexual anarchy.”

She voted against the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that increased the maximum Pell grant, lowered interest rates on subsidized student loans, and raised loan limits. She said “it fails students and taxpayers with gimmicks, hidden costs, and ...it favors the costly, government-run direct lending program over nonprofit and commercial lenders.” Bush signed it into law.

Bachmann opposes the DREAM Act, a proposed bipartisan legislation designed to allow conditional permanent residency if illegal aliens complete at least two years of military service or higher education. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2010 that passage would result in reducing deficits $1.4 billion and increase government revenues $2.3 billion over ten years.

In 2008, she expressed concern that Obama “may have anti-American views,” adding, “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?”

Bachmann proposed new drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Gulf of Mexico to help offset the cost of the 2008 Wall Street and auto industry bailouts, which she opposed. She was against the 2009 House cap-and-trade bill national, calling it an “energy tax.” She wants to make permanent the Bush tax cuts and eliminate estate tax.

She believes global warming is a hoax. She said on the House floor, “Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” Bachmann also supports the teaching of creationism along with evolution.

During her presidential campaign she said, "I believe that the actions of this government have been emblematic of ones that have not been based on true American values.” Bachman also said that Obama’s administration had “embraced something called gangster government.”

She supports total recall of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. She contributed to the “death panel” controversy by misrepresenting the opinions of a leading bioethicist, Ezekiel Emanuel (brother of Rahm). He is opposed to euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and said that key life-saving cancer drugs are not rationed by not “death panels” but Bush’s 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Act, limiting Medicare payments for generic drugs, which cuts profits, reduces production and leads to drug shortages.

She supports the phasing out of Social Security and Medicare, saying “what you have to do is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don't have any other options, we have to keep faith with them. But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off.”

Bachmann’s autobiography is Core of Conviction.

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