Michele Bachmann: If GOP Wins House, "All We Should Do" is Issue Subpoenas

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Congress

The often controversial Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann said yesterday that if Republicans will the House in November, "all we should do" is subpoena and investigate the Obama administration.

If Republicans take the House, Bachmann was asked at the GOP Youth Convention in Washington, "how do you feel about the chances for like a little oversight and a little accountability now that the Republicans will have the subpoena power - how aggressive do you think..."

"Oh, I think that's all we should do," Bachmann said. "I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another. And expose all the nonsense that is gone on. And it's very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership because the American people's patience is about this big. So we have to make sure that we do what the people want us to do."

The exchange was flagged and posted by the Three Fingers of Politics blog.

Bachmann went on to claim that while prior to President Obama's election, "the private economy was 100 percent held in private hands," while "today 65 percent of the economy is now held in government's hands - either through direct ownership or control."

It's not clear where Bachmann got the 65 percent figure. She claimed on CBS' "Face the Nation" in March that the government owns or controls 51 percent of the U.S. economy, which her communications director explained by combining an estimate from an economics professor of government ownership and "the passage of the health care bill, which makes up about 18 percent of the economy."

At no time since 1929, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data, was the United States' GDP 100 percent private.

Bachmann said in her remarks yesterday that "all of our chips are on November."

"If we don't get it back and then starve the beast - the House, we have the power of the purse - so we can starve ObamaCare," she said. "We don't have to fund any of these programs and that's exactly what we need to do - defund all of this nonsense and then unwind it."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by Justiceserved November 9, 2010 9:21 AM EST: Isn't it funny how the party that supported Bush as he wiped his butt with the Constitution & Bill of Rights every morning suddenly wants to use investigative tools to suppress the Dem agenda when there is no evidence of any wrongdoing?; Reply to this comment


by shredderofmass August 22, 2010 6:58 AM EDT: Republican candidate for congress Mike Stopa lays out a plan to kill ObamaCare that culminates with the election of President Michele Bachmann.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-sBypZbnmY; Reply to this comment


by simplygeorge July 26, 2010 10:08 PM EDT: Sounds really productive. What a great thing to campaign on. Was she the ugly kid who got left out of the sand-box? Threats not jobs. Threats of no help for the uninsured coupled with more threats to take away hard earned gains in healthcare and financial controls.

http://suspiciouspackaging.blogspot.com/2010/07/train-wreck-that-is-rep-michelle.html; Reply to this comment


by PVperson2 July 26, 2010 7:46 PM EDT: God what a crackpot, but then she does show what the agenda for the GOP will be rather than trying to help Americans, they'll only be concerned in bolstering their own political faces.; Reply to this comment


by zekeboy1 July 26, 2010 10:48 AM EDT: 'All we should do is subpoena and investigate the Obama administration'?
That's it? That's ALL you should do? LMAO Sounds like one hell of a campaign strategy.(still chuckling) I'm sure the people from Minn. do not want you to worry about anything else but that. eh, eh, eh, eh.
Its really not funny, though. Its disgusting, and so are you M.B.; Reply to this comment


by mrmajestix July 26, 2010 7:48 AM EDT: i am from minnesota and michell b has been a embarresment to us all up here she represents no one in this state other than her own narrow veiws. she tries so hard to be uppidy that it is sickening.. why does she have this ambition to be in public service when she acts like it is a game to her.. if she were all powerful then she would not squawk so hard evry time a camera is near her.. go back to ur suburban life and drink another vodka you low life nobody!!and leave the running of this nation with people who really r trying to fix this problem from the reagan-era!! all dumb ********!!! if you truely do not like MY state then go back to europe go finish that sorry country off you nobody but a loud mouth wishy washy publicity hound no one likes you... ur an embarressment to us all up here quietly say ur from minnesota.. and when ur fluke term is up go back to europe and dwell on ur stupidy!!!; Reply to this comment


by meshine July 25, 2010 5:30 PM EDT: The people of Minnesota without a doubt sent an idiot to the house when they elected this woman. Do she really believe that she is handling the business that the people of Minnesota sent her to Washington to handle when her whole agenda is to do nothing but to stop the Obama administration from succeeding. That is not the agenda of the people of Minnesota. That is her personal agenda. These right wing tea bagger politicians dont really care that America is failing as a country so long as they can block Obama from achieving anything. Their message is clear. To hell with country. Lets just make sure that the black man fails. That is a very dangerous philosophy. Why is it that the right wingers look at black people as though they are the Taliban? During the recent tea baggers rallies, they scream/shout about taking their country back. Who in the hell do they believe they're taking it back from?; Reply to this comment


by babooph July 25, 2010 4:42 PM EDT: The reason the private sector collapsed ,is due to her parties successful war on the US middle class & 2 useless military failures ,her delusions have her unable to look in the mirror.; Reply to this comment


by tngreen July 25, 2010 11:05 AM EDT: The big ol' elephant in the living room that nobody wants to acknowledge is WAR. WAR is the reason our economy went in the toilet. As long as we were only financing multiple small covert wars around the globe, we could sort of afford it. GWB pulled out all of the stops with total war on two fronts, in an effort to 1) secure hegemony over major oil supplies and 2) transfer public treasury to private bank accounts. Then we're surprised when we have a deficit? C'mon, that was half of the plan! Mission accomplished!

You want to restore a budget surplus? End our military occupation of foreign countries. Americans apparently thought this was going to be a welfare war (we wouldn't have to pay for it). Welfare Republicans, wanting something for nothing--good schools, good roads, clean water, safe food, big wars--no bill!; Reply to this comment