p.r. person for the myrtle beach tea party. i would say you're pretty darn good at what you do. say hi to jerry. we are surrounded by dignitaries. i like the sound of that. we also want to remember in the midst of the great joy that we have here today that it is altogether fitting and proper that we imagine someone who is also a great hero and dignitary.

if we look behind us, the flags today are at half staff here in myrtle beach. they are in -- at half staff in honor of the fire chief who died tuesday in the line of duty. when you join me for just one moment -- father, we thank you for this brave man, the fire chief here in myrtle beach. we ask, father, that you be with his family, love once, and friends. we thank you for the services given to this local community. lord, we thank you for him and ask that you would honor his memory as well as those who are first responders and all of those response -- serving our nation weather in iraq or afghanistan. lord, we ask you to be with them here today. i in your name we pray, a man. thank you, everyone. do we not live on in a great country? i am it thrilled that you are here. i feel like i am on vacation being in myrtle beach right

now. there is no better place. i am think of you are here, thank you want to take the country back. if we are seeing this all across the united states of america. in now just over 50 days ago my candidacy to be the next president of the united states of america. [applause] by the way, you probably do not know, but my name is michele bachmann and i intend to be the next president of the indicted states of america -- of the united states of america. you may have heard last saturday that there was a little election in iowa and i was the no. 1 when are in the iowa straw poll last week. [applause] we were absolutely thrilled. the victory was even more stunning than what was reported because i had only been a

candidate for the presidency for 49 days when the election happened. there were numerous candidates who spent several years in iowa and spat multiple millions of dollars in a very sophisticated ground game. our 49 days included the day i announced any day of the straw poll. i spent about half the time, it seems, in washington, d.c., fighting against the premise that barack obama should be given another $2.40 trillion in a blank check to spend. because i believe that your marching orders for it is time to stop giving him money to spend that we do not have. do you agree? that is why i said do not raise the debt ceiling. raising the debt ceiling just means we are going to borrow more money that we do not have. that is going to set us up for what?

for failure. that is exactly what happens. we did not have to default, did we? we could have played the interest on the debt -- that is the plan i offered. and then make sure that, number one, you pay the men and women in the military who are doing the work for us. i thought it was reprehensible when the administration answered questions to our brave men and women overseas who are serving at the time in the military, and when they ask the question will we get paid, the answer was we do not know. we do not know if you will get paid. under president bachmann, our men and women will always get paid in the military. always. the president also indicated that maybe senior citizens would not be getting their social security checks in august. i was all over iowa.

i talk to senior citizens in iowa and they said, "i cannot i canceled my internet. i did not know if i would get my check or not. you do not do that to senior citizens in the united states. you respect them. [applause] there is absolutely no question that we cannot continue the level of spending we have in this country. do we have any social conservatives here today in this audience? we do. good to see you. we need social conservatives. do we have any fiscal conservatives today in this audience? we do. do we have been a national security conservatives in this audience? the roof is coming down. that is good to know. let me show you how bad it has gotten in washington, d.c. are you ready to go to school?

we are going to school. let's have our first lesson. oh my goodness. oh my goodness, i have to apologize. i have to confess because i did not bring my teleprompter with me when i came to myrtle beach today. [applause] you have never seen the president without his teleprompter, had you? in my white house, there will be no teleprompter. because people in myrtle beach can take the unvarnished truth. see that great buzz over there? there are also no czars in that bus and there will be no czars in the bachmann white house either. let's go back to school.

the day i came in the united states congress was january of 2007. anyone have any idea the national debt we have accumulated? how much money do we owe as a country? yes, sir? oh, man, are you good. you take the cake. $100,000 million, billion, now here is trillion. no one tell barack obama what comes after trillion. do i have your word on that? very good. here we go. it is a whole new set of numbers. this is how much money it has taken our nation from the time we pass the constitution of the united states until the time i

came into office. $8.67 trillion dollars. that is what we accumulated in debt that we owed that we have to pay back. does anyone want to take a gander, after we made the decision to give barack obama that $2.40 million blank check in exchange for $24 billion in cuts, how much now do we owe? $14 trillion. $16 trillion. here we go. get ready. hold on to your hats. here we go. this is what we owe today. $16 trillion. it took us 219 years to accumulate over $8 trillion in debt. it took us four years to almost double it.

almost double it. do you see why i fought so hard? i was one of the lone voices in the wilderness of washington same for the last two months we have to stop. we cannot do this anymore. we have to change the premise. we cannot just do what they do year after year, time after time, which is take the cat -- take the credit card and with the limit. let me ask you -- why in the world -- what say you make $50,000 a year. that is a lot of money. what say you start spending money and by june, that $50,000 is gone. you say, that is no good. i want to keep spending more. some foolish banker agrees to

give you another $50,000 to spend to get you through the rest of the year, so you spent it all. you come to the end of the year and then you have to start january. are you better off than you were before? you are worse off because you of that $50,000, but also you of something else -- interest on the debt. that is what has happened to this country. imagine if you do that not just one year, but year after year after year. the sheriff would not on your door and he would take your furniture and put it at the end of the driveway. that is what would happen. if you were a business, you close your doors. he would be done because you have to pay your bills, do you not? the irs does not take kindly to you not paying your taxes. they would be there to take what you have and sell it. the united states of america is no different.

what was done is we've voted or sell a lifestyle that we cannot possibly afford. now the day of reckoning has come. what have we seen happen? we sell the stock market slide 1500 points in one week. yesterday, 420 points down on the stock market. we have lost, what? the credit rating of the united states -- the aaa credit rating went down to aa plus. we are not done with school. bring that back. we have more lessons to learn. bring it back, a young man. we are not done. we have more to learn. we have more to learn. the aaa credit rating but down to aa plus for the first time in american history. we made it to the depression without losing our credit rating. we made it through world war ii without losing our credit rating. if we made it through korea, vietnam, 9/11 -- would made it to all that and never lost our credit rating, but we have not been able to make it through barack obama without losing the credit rating.

one more reason we need to have a election night victory party here in myrtle beach. [applause] with your help, that is exactly what we are going to do. by the way, i am buying. i'd better ask my husband first. now let me ask you this question -- how much money did all of us pay in taxes and send it again to washington, d.c. this year? how much money did we take? i do not have a pocket. if i did, there would just be left and little rock's in there. $2.40 billion -- that is very close. $2.40 trillion. once again, we would get the scary numbers out. this is how much we pay again to get hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and then trillions. all of us together set our money

in and we paid $2.40 trillion. this is what it looks like. we all worked really hard this year. how about you? i did. let me ask you this -- how much of this amount did congress spend it? very good. you got up early. that was very good. we spent every bit of it. we spent all that. i thought that was going to create all the jobs. where are the jobs? here is the problem. we spend more than that. we did not just been at $2.20 trillion. this is how much more we spent. then we will add it all up. then we will take a look at that. tell me what you think. here we are. not only did we spend every bit

of that $2.20 trillion, we spent $1.50 trillion more just this year for a total of $3.70 trillion. do you know what that means? that means we are going to have to cut our town hall short because you all have to go out and get another job. you got to get another job because somebody has to pay those bills. thank you. that is good. that is what the problem is. the thing is, would you go to get your second job? unemployment is a little troublesome right now. the government, that is right. what did barack obama say was the solution to jobs? stimulus. we have to borrow more money from countries like china and we have to spend it on all these government projects. let me tell you what happened -- the wonder where that money is what? $1 trillion -- you should be allowed to find it

somewhere. you should be able to find jobs somewhere, should you not? i cannot find jobs. i do not know where they are. let me tell you what they did do. at the very beginning of the recession -- by the way, they tell us we are in a recovery. does it feel like a recovery to you? it fills an awful lot like -- an awful lot like a recession. at the beginning of the recession, there was one employee in the department of transportation that made $170,000 a year. 18 months into the recession, there were 1690 employees in the department of transportation making over $170,000 a year. is that not special? that is amazing, is it not? that did not seem to give us jobs did it? i do not know.

maybe we do not have the formula right. the president said what the problem was. he said the whole problem in washington right now is that don tea party. you heard about that? it is the tea party. that is the problem with america. because these tea party people, let me tell you what they believed -- they believe we are taxed enough already. that is what they believe. [applause] that is our tea party. -- taxed enough already. i am going to let you as the first question, how about that? that is one thing they believe. here is another thing the tea party believes -- they believe you should not spend more money than what you take in. what a concept. it is amazing. no wonder he is so upset with the tea party. here is the third thing the tea party believes -- i know you won't believe this, but they believe that the government, whether it is the congress, the president, or the supreme court

-- should act within the limits of the constitution. if you have ever heard of anything -- have you ever heard of anything? no wonder the president is upset with the tea party movement. but the tea party movement is right. they are right. because they know they are reasonable, fair minded people who recognize that you cannot spend money that you do not have, that with -- that we start increasing taxes on our job providers, we will get less jobs rather than more jobs. i understand that. i am a federal tax lawyer. that is what i get for a living. i understand that if you increase taxes, you get less of something. when you lower taxes, you get more of something. so why in the world are we increasing the taxes on the job providers in this country when we need more jobs?

it only makes common sense. i think people in myrtle beach get that. i think people all across the united states get that. you see, we are fiscal conservatives who want the country to work again. we are practical, fair minded people who believe that these solutions are not about, and we are not alone there are none of these events i do where people come up to me and say yes or a democrat. i voted for barack obama. there is noted that i get to where an independent does not come up and say i voted for barack obama in 2008, but i am voting for you this time because i want my life to work again. i want a job. my son was a job. he is in college. he wants a job.

do you know how bad the unemployment situation is? president obama has not only failed us all, he has really failed african-american youth. right now, african-american youth unemployment is almost 40%. kids who want a job, kids who want to learn job skills -- 40% do not have a job. that is trouble. that is trouble because how did they move on to get the next better job? they need that beginning job. hispanic youth is not much better. it is over 32% of hispanic use out of work. he has failed hispanic youths. he has failed african-american youth. he has failed all americans when it comes to job creation -- all americans. that is what i want to do as president of the united states. my focus will be to turn the economy around. i get it. i understand what the problem is.

the problem is the government is taxing away too much money. the first thing they are doing wrong, i think we have already proved it, they are spending more money than they should. that is where we began. as president of the united states, i will only introduce a balanced budgets into the congress. [applause] how many of you would like to see a balanced budget amendment to our constitution? i would. [applause] but as president of the united states, i intend to lead by example. i do not need a balanced budget amendment to tell me the right thing to do. i am going to introduce the balanced budget from the get go. because that is the right thing to do to put our fiscal house in order. we cut spending, we cut taxes on the producers and the job creators, and then we deal with the regulatory burden. i was the first member of congress to introduce a full repeal of obamacare in the united states congress. [applause]

as president of the united states and, furthermore, as nominee of the republican party, i will not rest until i can elect 13 more like my big, new republican senators so we can have a filibuster-proof majority in the senate and actually repeal obamacare. [applause] let me ask you this -- i was i wastired of looking for 13 more jim demints to go to the united states senate. [applause] i think that might change the complexion and makeup of the united states senate, do you not? if we have 13 more like minded senators in the senate, if we had the conservative house, this is what we can do. i would get together with them

right after election night. i will pull the leadership together and tell them this, we will get that aaa credit rating back. we will. if i was the president of the united states the day the standard and poor's to downgrade, this is what i would have done. i would have said to all 235 members of congress, if you are coming back to washington, d.c. today. by a plane ticket and get back to town. we are america. we are going to get it back. this is how we are going to do it. we are going to announce to the markets that we will not default on our interest payments on the debt. now wary of default. take it all the table. number two, we will pay or men and women in the military. number three, we will play our senior citizens who are currently on the retirement system. after that, we will reform the system. we will reform medicaid. we will reform medicare. we will reform social security

for those who are not yet on it because these are 8 year old systems and 45 year old systems. i am 55. i need a tuneup once in awhile, i do not know about you. but we need to bring the systems into the current time period. we can make them better than what they are. we will never cut people off, but we need to make them better and more functioning because they are not working for anyone. this is what we know. no one was to say it, but it is true. nine years from now, we are told, that the medicare hospital trust fund will be hot -- will be flat broke. we've seen the movie "titanic. when you have an iceberg and you have a ship going right into it, the go ahead and take -- what you call that thing? we as a navy does your. you take the throttle and give full speed ahead? the want to go faster into the iceberg? that is what president obama is doing. i could no more do that. if my mother is 80.

my stepdad is 87. if the last thing i want to happen is for them to be a step replacement and find out, sorry, there is no money left. i love people to much to do that. i care about people too much to do that. that is why obamacare is such a disaster for the country because under obamacare, it is a symbol of everything that is wrong in washington, d.c. we are told that 800,000 jobs will be lost because of obamacare because employers will not be able to afford the cost to pay for obamacare. we also know this about obamacare -- are you not darling? you really do get that first question. here is the other thing we know about obamacare -- we know president obama thinks about senior citizens. he has already stolen over $500 billion out of medicare. he has to let it out of medicare

at a time where we have more people entering the ranks of needing medicare than ever before. how does that math work out? i was in the white house a little over a month ago. we ask the president, not once, but three times, mr. president, what is our plan to save medicare? we know what is going to happen. he mumbled a little bit and did not answer the question. then he finally said, "obamacare. do you realize that this is in all likelihood be president's plan for senior citizens? medicare will collapse. you all will be welcomed into the world of obamacare. is that what you want? that is not what i have seen anywhere else in the country because we already know what he thinks of senior citizens. obamacare will be a disaster because this is how it will run. the president is a 2015 people to a board. on this board, they will be charged with all the major health care decisions across the country.

the me ask you this -- do you think that 15 people could make -- should make up the health care decisions for myrtle beach, south carolina? do you think 15 people could make all the health care systems -- decisions for those of us gathered here? i want to make my health care decisions with my doctor. that is how i want to do it. [applause] ipab has 15 people making all the decisions for over 300 million americans. their job will be to say, no. that is their job. here is a hypothetical. we can see this board say we do not have any more money. what are we going to do? i might say we can afford 10,000 hip replacements this year. that is it.

they run out of a hip replacements by june. you are 10,001. where did you go? under obamacare, guess what? there is no appeal. as a matter of fact, it is enforced in 16,500 irs agents. that is our future. i am here to tell you that obamacare lays a foundation for socialized medicine in this country. as president of the united states, i will not abide socialized medicine in the united states. i will not rest until we repeal obamacare. [applause] and i will not rest until we repeal the dodd-frank legislation, which has stopped credit in this country and is killing the banking industry and killing businesses from being able to get credit. i believe very strongly in our united states military. my dad was in the air force.

my stepdad was in the army. my brother retire from the u.s. navy. i have tremendous respect and admiration for our military. i see that as president of the united states, our number one duty is to be commander in chief. i am privileged. we love our military and we stand for them. i am privileged to sit on the house permanent select committee on intelligence. we are a very tiny committee and we deal with the nation's classified secrets. regularly, i am briefed but here within the interior of the united states and the threats that come to us externally. what i can tell you is this -- there is not a day, not a day that goes by that there is not someone who wakes up and thinks about how they will kill americans today. there is not a day that goes by that someone does not wake up and think how am i going to

destroy the united states of america today? that is what the next commander in chief needs to understand, as i have come to understand sitting on the intelligence committee, that this is job number one of the president -- the safety and security of the american people. that, i will do. [applause] i will tell you -- i will do something very different from what our president has done. i read that made a very grievous decision in may when he called on israel to retreat to indefensible, 1967 borders. as president of the united states, i will stand with our ally, israel. i will stand with israel. [applause] the united states will once again announced to the world that we will have israel's back as every president has done since the time of harry truman. israel declared their sovereignty in may of 1948.

11 minutes later, harry truman did the biggest favor he ever did for israel. he recognized israel's sovereignty. every president since has had israel's back until may of this year when the president made that indefensible statement of his. likewise, i will stand up against america's animes like an iran that seeks to have a nuclear weapon. i will stand against a nuclear iran and i will stand against a nuclear syria. [applause] the president has taken his eye off of the main events in the middle east, which is the buildup of a nuclear iran. the president of iran, ahmadinejad, has said that he would use a nuclear weapon to what israel off the map. he has said he would use it

against the united states. if history has told us anything, it is to take the threats of madman seriously. i take them seriously. as president of the united states, this court -- this country will be respected in this world. [applause] so you see, we have a team that is absolutely -- that absolutely cannot be beat. when you bring together fiscal conservatives, social conservatives who believe that the family is the basic unit of government of this country, we should respect the family. respect marriage. respect life. i do. social conservatives, tea party conservatives, and the national security conservatives. when we all come together under this banner, i am just telling you, we must stick together. we cannot get anyone out about

that. we need each other. we stand together, we hold hands together, we fight together, and, together, we will take the country back and we will make barack obama a one-term president. god bless you. god bless the united states. let's take some questions. i promised our first questioner. >> i am 8 yes veteran retired from the united states army. i just want to let you know that if it was not for the veterans of this country, our country when not have the freedom and constitution that lies in this country today. i will be doggone it on less socialistic my country over. i am willing to make barack

obama a one-term president. >> thank you. he said he will make barack obama a one-term president. if he is a veteran. thank you for all -- to all the veterans for your service. put your hand up if you are a veteran, you are married to one, or you are a boyfriend or girlfriend. thank you for what you had done for this country. if we are going to make him a one-term president. i want you to go to my website, michelebachman.com, go to my facebook site, like twitter site, go to my youtube. i am determined that we have to win, and we will win the primary here in south carolina. it is important that we do everything that we can to volunteer to give money, to organize, to come together and take this state of south carolina. south carolina determines to the

next president will be. i intend to win the state twice. once in the primaries, and next time in the general election. this will be the pace car for the entire country. south carolina. >> what would you do to bring in the 50% of the people who do not pay any taxes at all? that is ridiculous. >> thank you for asking that question. what would i do to bring in the 50% of people who do not pay taxes. it is unbelievable that 53% of americans pay taxes. 47% do not. it may be worse than that this year. this is incomprehensible because every person in this country, i do not care who you are, you have a stake in the success of the united states of america. every single person should pay something, even if it is $1. everybody should pay something because we all have a stake in the success of the nation.

that is what i want to do it, change the tax code. that is my background. i have a degree in federal tax law. i have worked in task force. my husband and i started our own business. on every level, i am very familiar with of the tax code kills jobs and how we create them on the other hand. i want to take the tax code, which is 3.8 million words. the irs say they cannot tell us how many words. i think that is a problem, do you not? i want to make the tax code so small and so simple that any american can fill out their tax form on a postcard and send it again and we all participate. whether it is fair or flat, it has to be simple. i will take that debate in the first 100 days i am in office. >> i want to ask you a question about the economy.

if the economy stupid? that is the bottom line. without money coming in, you cannot pay the bills. what i would like to hear you talk about, ross perot had it right. he said, "you take money from 1%, to reduce all of your expenses 1%, and you start to close the gap. why do we have to target either unions, policemen, or some group when everybody, whether you are a tree company that does work for the federal government, a ship builder -- everybody takes 1%, we get it done, and the deficit starts to shrink. you do not spend any more money than you have it. what you're talking about cutting spending, right? of course we have to do that. there is no question.

there is not one department that should not be left on the table. by the way, i think there are departments which a completely closed out of the federal government. that is my opinion. do not forget, i am very pro education. that is that i cut my teeth is on educational reform in the political world. let's face it -- jimmy carter created the department of education as a political payoff to the unions. we have not seen increased test scores, have we? if we repeal all the federal education laws, which, by the way, cost local school districts and arm and leg because all of the unfunded mandates that came down to the schools, which made all the requirements, congress is all too happy to pass laws. you have to do all this, but we will not give the money for it. get rid of it. it is not working. what i would do is pass the mother of all repeal bills and

repeal the federal education law. then i would get to the department of education, turn the lights off, locked the doors, and say we are done with the department of education. over a three-year period, i would take the money we sent out to the schools and write a letter to the superintendent and say, "you have to realize you do not have a more alarmist to deal with, but over three years, we will get down to zero. change your budgets accordingly. i tell you, they would take that deal. it is not that hard to turn the economy around. the solutions are not that hard. what we at mid missing is someone with a backbone -- what we have been missing is someone with a backbone. i have the spine to do it. that is what sets me apart from all the candidates in the race. we cannot have the other team in the white house having -- wearing another -- a different jersey. we need a different kind of president with a proven track

record of taking on washington. i am and proud republican, but i have taken my own party on issue after issue because i keep it principle over party. we have to stand for the people. we have to change it. this is our tiny window of opportunity. 2012 is it. >> this is our last question. just a minute. look at this beautiful hair. turn around. oh my word, are you beautiful. >> thank you. we met last year at the tea party rally under the washington monument. my question to you is this -- how do you, as a mother, feel about texas governor rick perry allowing a texas chair to send new pictures of my little sister's end date? >> that is quite a question. i am glad you are here today. i cannot answer it here, because i do not have any information about it. i cannot do that. i am sorry. i cannot answer. >> would you please check into its? >> now that you have put it out

here, i have no doubt that it will be checked into. there you go. [laughter] we have one more question. i know that was difficult for you to say that. >> quantity ask you about stimulus spending. you mentioned that earlier. hr5140 was the first stimulus bill. you voted yes on that. how can we trust you to fight spending? >> if you can trust me because my track record i have in washington. that bill came out when i first came to congress. it was a bill that george bush was behind. $160 billion that was a rebate. i was told this was people getting their money back. i like that idea. i like the idea of the government giving our money back to us. the ultimate expression, though, is it really was not. it really was not getting our

money back to us. i paid taxes in. i did not get any money back. there were people who actually got money to, like the gentleman said, had never paid taxes again. you find out when you go to congress, you cannot necessarily believe that even what your own party leadership tells you. i am not try to castigate them, but this is what i was told -- we are just giving the people their money back. i thought i would rather get the money back to the people that we did in washington, d.c. for these people to stand. that is why i voted for it we had that made me extremely skeptical of any think i heard there on out. we had to do our own research. we have to find out from then on what is in the bills. by the way, i think you should read the bill before you pass them. thanks for asking that question. i am really glad that you did. this is an example of what happens all the time in

washington. it is pathetic. the question is do i think that members of congress should have term limits and caps on their salaries? right now, we have been putting a cap on salaries, and rightly so because the american people are not seeing wage increases, so neither sid members of congress the wage increases. there are no term limits, as you know, in congress. for us to do that would be a constitutional amendment. it is difficult to do because, let's face it, the people writing the laws are the ones to are not necessarily interested in having term limits. some states have done that. some states have looked at term limits and all -- and some members have voluntarily term limited. here's the problem -- the people who usually term limit of the fiscal conservatives that we

want in washington, d.c. it is never the big spenders that term limit out. this is a problem and what the best things that happened is that the congress had an internal rule that the committee chairs, who are a big part of the problem, or term limited. we passed some of our own rules as republicans that we do term-limit the committee chairs. it helps, but it is not the solution. pardon me? yes. i think the bill has been introduced, but it has not gone anywhere. pardon me? >> anybody who votes against it,

it is a matter of public record. are they entitled to remain there forever? >> my opinion has been when it comes to term limits that i think it is important for the voters to make that decision. that is the ultimate term limit. they have, especially in this last election, they have made this decision. my only concern with term limits is two-fold. at the state of arizona -- the state of arizona has term limits on their senators. if you are in for just a few years, then the bureaucracy runs the state. that is what i have been told. one thing i do not want to do is empower the bureaucracy because they already have a lot of power as it is. what i want to do is cut back the bureaucracy. we need members of congress to do the right thing. the same with the president of the united states. we need someone who does the right thing. they tell me we have to go. there is the hook. i want you to know i love you, i care about you. i am thank you came. get to michelebachmann.com.

we will take the country back in 2012. god bless you all. thank you for coming. i love you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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knee >> next, your calls on "washington journal." then a discussion of non-violent movement around the world. remarks on the u.s. security issues by john mclaughlin. >> it is a country fraught with corruption, natural disasters, an islamic extremist.

>> in pakistan, the assassinations were welcomed, were congratulated by many pakistani. these are not terrorists, nat al qaeda, not taliban, but ordinary pakistanis who feel that their religion is threatened, that the country is becoming too secular, that the islamic values are under attack, and that blasphemy, anything that insull's the profit or islam, is something to be defended with their life. >> pamela constable on q&a. >> this morning, robert rector from the heritage foundation looks at the effectiveness of federal social programs. then daniel serwer from the john hopkins center discusses what the u.s. and european leaders are calling for the removal