Would-be GOP presidential nominee Michele Bachmann began her weekend tour of the Sunshine State today, making a late afternoon visit to a sub shop in Jacksonville Beach.
Angie’s Subs, which is owned by a passionate tea party local, was packed to capacity during the event. Protestors holdings signs that read, “Save the American dream, no Tea Party” gathered outside, but the crowd in support of Bachmann outnumbered them by the dozen. Flanked by her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, and local tea party powerhouse Billie Tucker, Bachmann spoke out against “ObamaCare” and promised to “turn out the lights and lock the doors” at both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education.
Aside from one minor gaffe (she called Angie’s, a local sub shob, “Subway”), Bachmann was poised and confident during her Jacksonville visit.
Joking that underneath her black shirt was a “titanium spine,” she boasted that she had stood up to President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and “even [her] own party’s leadership.”
“We wrote the bill to repeal ObamaCare,” she proclaimed, “and I was the first member of Congress on the floor, introducing that full repeal and as president of the United States, I will fulfill that promise to you.”
Bachmann had harsh words for the EPA, which she called the “job-killing agency of America.”
“I intend to bring back true change, true hope, by repealing the tax code and dramatically cutting spending and I’m going to start with the Environmental Protection Agency,” she said, eliciting cheers from her tea party audience. “I am so happy you agree, because I intend to turn out the lights and lock the doors.”
She spoke similarly of the Department of Education, which she said then-President Jimmy Carter created as a “payoff to a union”:
So this is what I would do. I would pass a mother of all repeal bills for education, get rid of all of the unfunded mandates that the federal government puts on our local schools — making it very difficult for schools to be effective. … I would have a very busy day, a very busy day. ‘Cause I first have to make a trip to the EPA and after that, I have to go to the Department of Education because I also have to shut the lights off and lock the doors over there, as well.
Bachmann will next stop in Poinciana for a town hall Saturday morning and end her tour of Florida at a GOP rally in Sarasota on Sunday.
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