Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann Monday afternoon spoke on government fiscal restraint, the growing deficit and health-care reform at a libertarian-leaning conservative Independence Institute event in Denver. Speaking mostly without notes in her distinct Minnesota accent, she railed against government spending in now-widely reported provocative and sometimes lurid language. Bachmann’s message may be unsurprising, her selective interpretations frustrating, her stacked Heritage Foundation numbers predictable, but her rhetorical style gave the talk that particular Bachmann quality that tends to catch fire across the mediasphere.
Video after the jump.
This is my third year in Congress and I have learned two things. The first is, it is so easy to spend other people’s money. It is so easy… Number two… the scary thing in all of this, with where we’re going… government creates cartels. I couldn’t believe it, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. That’s the second thing government does. They create cartels. They are very much like the mob in Washington D.C. That’s Washington. It’s Capone. You pay your protection money and you get it and then government creates a cartel for you. It’s a great business if you can get it. That’s how it works. That’s how the joint works. But that’s what they’ve done with insurance companies. They’re created partial monopolies in each state…
We are being given a gift on a silver platter..This is a seminal moment. It may be the moment we were born for… This is the moment to make the case for what started America and made us great, for what has given us the opportunity to be the greatest country in 5,000 years of recorded human history, and it’s the idea of freedom and free markets, and we need to embrace that, not apologize for that, and stand up on that foundation and make sure that that’s our future!
Speech:
The Independence Institute presents… Michele Bachmann
Q&A:
Michele Bachmann – Q & A Session
