Rep. Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax that no president has done more to “betray” Israel than Barack Obama in his call for the Jewish state to return to its 1967 borders.
The Minnesota Republican, who is considering a run for president in 2012, also asserts that the United States needs an “intervention” by ordinary Americans to stop runaway federal spending, saying it is “immoral” to spend now what future generations have yet to earn.
And Bachmann maintains that she is strongly considering a White House run because continuing Obama’s policies would deprive the nation of a “golden future.”
The story continues below the video.
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Rep. Bachmann was first elected to the House in 2006 and is the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus. Her exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV is part of an upcoming profile of Bachmann and her expected candidacy that will be featured in the July edition of Newsmax magazine.
Referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Tuesday, Bachmann tells Newsmax: “He was phenomenal. He was clear. He eloquently stated Israel’s position and he stated the problems in the Middle East.
“The best line that summed up what Netanyahu said was this: Israel isn’t what’s wrong with the Middle East, Israel is what is right with the Middle East.
“Israel wants to have a peaceful solution but if Israel would do what President Obama has called for – giving up yet more land and reducing their borders to the 1967 borders — there wouldn’t be peace, there would be all-out war against the Jewish state.
“The Prime Minister rightly said Israel recognizes that Palestinians should have a state, but they need to recognize that the Jewish state of Israel has a right to exist.”
Bachmann called Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, “al-Qaida in Palestine.”
She said: “We cannot expect Israel to negotiate with the al-Qaida version in Palestine. I think the prime minister was clear on that.
“President Obama stands alone in his [call] to put Israel in a position of indefensible borders.”
Bachmann said there’s “no question” that President Obama aided the forces trying to undermine the legitimacy of Israel.
“President Obama is the leader of the Free World and he’s also supposed to be Israel’s friend.
“From the time that Harry Truman recognized Israel as a sovereign state 11 minutes after Israel declared its independence until today, no president has done more to betray the State of Israel. It’s shocking and outrageous, the statement that President Obama said last Thursday.
“One would think the President would have had the backing and support of his own party, but it was interesting that even Senator Harry Reid will not stand with the president on the border issue.
“The president has sent a signal to let the thugs of the world think that they can have a heyday with Israel, and that is not the view of the people that I represent, nor of the people that I speak to all across America, nor my colleagues in the House, nor my colleagues in the United States Senate. President Obama speaks for himself on this issue and not for the American people.”
Turning to economic issues, Bachmann discussed the upcoming vote in Congress on whether to raise the debt ceiling.
“It was President Obama who said that he wanted a clean up or down vote on whether we should increase the debt ceiling by somewhere around $2 trillion,” she said.
“I think it’s important that people know what raising the debt ceiling is. It’s giving permission to the federal government to borrow more money that we don’t have.
“President Obama wants the Congress to go to other countries and borrow $2 trillion that we don’t have and that our children will have to pay back some day and to use that to spend right now.
“I highly doubt that the president will get the answer that he wants, which is to increase borrowing authority.”
Bachmann added that America needs to create jobs and “we can do this but we can’t do it if the present federal government continues to spend money it doesn’t have on wasteful, fraudulent, abusive projects. We have to reform government and the good news is that we can.”
Bachmann charges that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has resorted to “scare tactics” by warning about dire consequences if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.
“The secretary unfortunately resorted not only to scare tactics, in my opinion it was outright blatant lies when he said that we would see the collapse of various things if we didn’t allow the government to continue to borrow money and spend money.
“We’re at the point where we actually need an intervention, and the American people are saying we want to intervene. Stop spending money we don’t have. It would be immoral for us to consume what generations yet unborn have yet to earn.”
Bachmann also says she supports the deficit reduction plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, but with several qualifications. She’s concerned the plan doesn’t do enough to foment the medical breakthroughs that she considers the ultimate, long-range solution to spiraling health care costs. Also, she’s worried about how the plan’s impact is being communicated to voters. She believes backers of the plan should stress that changes in the Medicare program would affect only those who are currently 55 years old or younger.
“We don’t want anyone who is 78 years of age and depending on Medicare to think that their Medicare is going to be pulled out from under them. It won’t be.”
As for Bachmann’s possible run for the Republican presidential nomination, she tells Newsmax: “We have been continually meeting with our team of advisors. This has been a long decision-making process because this is a momentous decision.
“I’ll be making my announcement in June and people will know. We’ve been taking all the steps toward a run but the final decision has to be made.
“The team has to be put into place because this isn’t about any individual’s political career. This is about [stopping] Obama [from] taking away a future for the next generation, because that’s what his policies mean.
“His policies are depriving this nation of a golden future.”
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