Michele Bachmann was a guest on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and she spends some time trying to sound like a legal expert. She tries to gin up some Republican talking points about the allegedly unconstitutional mandate of the Affordable
March 25, 2012

Michele Bachmann was a guest on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and she spends some time trying to sound like a legal expert. She tries to gin up some Republican talking points about the allegedly unconstitutional mandate of the Affordable Care Act.

Keep it up, Michele. Every time you open your mouth, we get to remind people that Mitt Romney was the real author of Obamacare, and this plan was designed by the right wing Heritage Foundation:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, I know a lot of conservatives are concerned that that is exactly what Governor Romney is going to do, that he's an Etch A Sketch candidate who's going to abandon some of the positions he's taken in the primaries. Are you concerned about that?

BACHMANN: Well, I think, again, I'm going to unite behind the candidate, as our party will, no matter who that candidate will be. These kind of things are the minors that become majors, these statements, but the real major is going to be this issue of Obamacare. It's been talked about all this last week. And I have a ticket. I will be in the Supreme Court chamber to hear these oral arguments live.

I was the chief author of the bill to repeal Obamacare, the first member of Congress to do so. I helped lead 40,000 Americans to the Capitol in opposition to the passage of Obamacare. And during the course of the presidential race, I made a distinct difference and a contribution, because now when the nominees first started many of them were looking at dealing with Obamacare through waivers and through executive orders. Now our nominees, all four of them or all four candidates, have just one answer, and that's full-scale repeal. That's 180 degrees different from President Obama, who fully stands behind this very unpopular bill. Whoever our nominee is, they will repeal Obamacare.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I do want to ask you about that, but -- so you're not worried about this label "Etch A Sketch candidate"?

BACHMANN: No, I'm not. Our candidate will be strong. We will be united as a party.

STEPHANOPOULOS: On -- on health care, you just heard David Plouffe say that he and the White House, the president is very confident that the Supreme Court is going to uphold the president's plan. And a lot of independent analysts have said they see that what's most likely, legal Supreme Court followers, is a 6-3 or maybe even a 7-2 decision in favor of the president's plan. Do you agree?

BACHMANN: Well, it -- it depends on what the Supreme Court decides to rule on. The one issue that they may try to narrowly construe is the Anti-Injunction Act. And it's interesting. When Obamacare was being passed through Congress, President Obama adamantly said this is not a tax. Now, when this bill is before the Supreme Court, President Obama is adamantly saying this is a tax, a complete flip-flop, and that's dealing with this issue of an Anti-Injunction Act.

But the real issue that most Americans are concerned about is the constitutionality of the government forcing Americans to pay for a very expensive insurance policy, which some people are estimating could cost $20,000 a year for families. This is extremely expensive. Families won't have a choice. They're going to be forced to buy an insurance product that government tells them they have to purchase. If they don't, they'll have to pay a fine to the federal government. This is absurd. It's never happened before in the history of the country.

And that's why most people today, 72 percent of the people, according to a Gallup poll, say this is unconstitutional. The people do not like this bill at all. They do not like the federal government forcing them to spend their money in a way that they don't want to spend it. It's wildly unpopular. It's why the Republicans gained control of the House in 2010.

I believe it will be why we have a Republican president this year, because of President Obama's signature piece of legislation, Obamacare. He has to now stand before the American people and defend it. And interestingly, George, Friday was the two-year anniversary of his signing of Obamacare, not a peep out of the president of the United States. He can't even go before the public and defend it.

So our nominee will make this the number-one issue, and I think it's -- again, it's wildly unpopular and should be found unconstitutional, because it is.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congresswoman Bachmann, thanks very much for your time this morning.

BACHMANN: Thank you, George.

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