Bachmann: Public Wants Obamacare Gone

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who along with 53 of her GOP colleagues voted against the three-week stopgap spending measure the House passed Tuesday, says the extent of no votes shows the Republican Party is listening to the American people. Bachmann Tuesday also said that most Americans want Congress to give “the boot to Obamacare.”

“The very first time we had a two-week continuing resolution, a stopgap measure to fund the government, we had six members vote no – today we had 54. That’s a stunning increase in Republicans that are unwilling to continue the stopgap funding,” Bachmann told Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs. “Primarily because there are some bigger things we are looking at – one of which is defunding Obamacare.”

Dobbs asked Bachmann whether she still believed the House can succeed in defunding President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation.

“It won’t be easy – but it’s possible,” Bachmann said. “We had two pressure points: One was the continuing resolution that we just voted on. The second one will be raising the debt ceiling. So we have two opportunities where we can make the case to the American people.

“Just last night, the Rasmussen poll [showed] the highest percentage of Americans – not just Republicans or conservatives – Americans, that includes Democrats, that want us to repeal and get rid of Obamacare; it is 62 percent; last week, Lou, it was 54 percent. Americans want Congress to get serious and give the boot to Obamacare.”

Turning to spending cuts, Dobbs asked whether there can be a balance between the GOP establishment that is willing to have minimal spending cuts and tea party members, like Bachmann, who want much larger reductions in federal expenditures.

Bachmann, who told Dobbs she is considering a 2012 presidential run, said she believed that a balance can be achieved – with caveats.

“I think it’s important that the Republican leadership listen to the people,” she said. “Because after all, the [tea party] is not Democrat or Republican, it really is an independent movement, and people are saying: ‘Listen to us. We can’t take any more of the spending.’”