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Published January 27, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 11, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Between Friday's last minute budget deal and President Obama's new push to increase the debt ceiling, the Republicans are amassing lots of reasons why they should be the party of choice come 2012.
Now my next guest has not officially thrown her head into the ring, but she told the Des Moines Register that if elected, she would serve only one term if that is what it would take to turn the country around.
Joining me now, live from the great state of Iowa, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
Why would you say just one term?
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN.: Well, I didn't say, what I said is that if it would mean only serving one. I didn't close the door on two but I think it is important to be serious enough about the issues that if it men not being able to run for a second term, I think dealing -- we need to get serious now. We can't be about anyone's political career. We have to get serious quickly now and turn the country around, get it back on track.
HANNITY: All right. So, you're one of 28 Republicans against the deal that came out on Friday, only 28 in the House. Is the reason you could not support this is because to use your term, you don't think this was serious?
BACHMANN: No, I think that what this bill failed to do -- it failed to show the mandate of the election of last November. We didn't seriously try to defund Obamacare in this bill. We did not defund Planned Parenthood. And we have promised we were going to cut 100 billion out of the budget, then we reduced it to $61 billion. Now, we were able to provide $38 1/2 billion. I appreciate that we got that much. And this doesn't denigrate any of my colleagues in their decision to support the bill. They felt they needed to, to support our troops. That's why, I think it's very important than in any future negotiations, we take the troops out, so that our troops' families and active military don't have to worry about this happening again. We need to take that off the table, so we can actually fight and get real serious reductions, because we need to.
HANNITY: The reason I'm against the deal is because this is what they promised that they would do for the 2011 budget. Now, the Ryan budget if it's passed would defund Obamacare. And I know that's been a big concern of yours. That budget if would pass, would take us back to 2008 spending levels.
But the feeling I'm getting, the e-mails that I'm getting, the people I'm talking to feel that, wait a minute, you said $100 billion, you prorated it to 61 and then we ended up at 38. In that sense, is that a broken promise by the new leadership?
BACHMANN: Sean, I heard the same thing all weekend from people all over the country. I'm hearing Iowa today. I'm hearing the same thing here. People are very disappointed because they thought it was going to be far more. They realize that $38 1/2 billion, while they appreciate it, is not going to change the direction of the country and they're wondering when are we going to get serious?
I know that again, my colleagues felt that they were doing the right thing by voting for this bill, I understand why they're voting for it, because of the troops. But again, they want us to get serious. And it's all the more reason why in 2012, we have to take back the Senate and the White House so we can actually deliver.
But we need to fight now. We can't wait until then. We have to fight now. These are very serious economic times.
HANNITY: How much do you think this was related to the fear of a government shutdown and the fear that politically the Republicans would be damaged because this would be like 1995 all over again? Because I agree with you, I think we got to fight, I think we got to fight here, over the debt ceiling. It just doesn't seem to me a time for half measures that we really got to get a hold of the debt or opportunity goes out the window.
Do you think there was a fear to shutdown the government? Was that a tactic Democrats used effectively?
BACHMANN: I think that no one wanted to see the slowdown occur. Because it's not a shutdown, it's a slowdown, but we had a clear mandate from the November election to seriously cut spending and to defund Obamacare. People already got that issue about spending. They totally got it about Obamacare. The people would have been with us I think if we would have taken it all the way.
HANNITY: All right.
BACHMANN: But we need to make that case. We need to be bold and we needed to push it all the way. You couldn't wait until the day before to start pushing that message.
HANNITY: Will you vote to raise the debt ceiling, which I understand, it comes up in the next four, or five weeks.
BACHMANN: No, I won't. I won't.
HANNITY: And, all right. So, I can predict liberal arguments. By the way, if cutting $61 billion means that we're going to kill women as people said, and this is like bombing civilians and Republicans don't want women to get mammograms and cancer screening, I can only imagine when we deal with the debt ceiling issue, or deal with you know, trillions rather than billions.
BACHMANN: Right. But we have the people with us, that's the difference.
HANNITY: I agree with you. I'm all for that reason.
BACHMANN: Yes. People recognize that we can't just keep upping the limit on the nation's credit card. This madness has to stop. What are we going to do, every three months raise the debt ceiling again? At some point, you have to exercise fiscal discipline. And it isn't that revenue won't stop coming into the Treasury. We'll continue to get revenue. What it does, it forces government to change its priorities. We can pay off our debt obligations first, so we don't miss any debt payments. But then maybe we can't afford to pay for, you know, certain extra employees or extra programs. In other words, we actually cut back. That's not a bad thing. And people want us to do that
HANNITY: All right. So, you are considering a run. You said you are going to make your decision sometime around June if I remembered correctly. Donald Trump has gotten a lot of news. And we'll be talking to him later this week on this program. What do you think of the issue that he has brought up involving whether or not the president, and his birth certificate?
BACHMANN: Well, I've said that I take the president at his word. The president has offered his certificate of birth and I take him at his word.
HANNITY: OK. Do you think it is a question that is worth asking? In other words, show the birth certificate or do you think that is out of bounds?
BACHMANN: As far as I'm concerned, I think if I decide to hold, throw my hat in the ring, anybody can look at my birth certificate, I could care less. This is the easiest problem to solve. The president just has to give the proof and verification, and there it goes. Either it is real or it's not. Everybody should put their birth certificate on the table and not worry about it. It doesn't have to be a toxic issue, put your birth certificate in, end of story. We have a lot bigger fish to fry than this.
HANNITY: All right. Congresswoman, I appreciate your time. Thanks for being with us.
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