Who MICHELE BACHMANN REALLY Represents!

This being an election year, I am periodically posting profiles of U.S. Representatives and Senators who have an obvious disconnect with the overwhelming majority of us citizens who aren't rich, have low or average-paying jobs or are unemployed, and who aren't far-right extremists or ultra-conservative religious right fundamentalist fanatics. These Congresspersons do not understand and are completely out of touch with average citizens. They are wholly bought out by big corporations and special interests, are thoroughly partisan ideologues, and do not deserve re-election or to continue on the public payroll. I am spotlighting where these aloof officials get their campaign money from to show who they are beholden to and whose interests they are actually serving. All data presented here can be found at the website www.opensecrets.org (supplied by the Center .for Responsive Politics), or www.themiddleclass.org. Today's segment will focus on ultra-conservative teabagger and Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota's 6th District.


Top 20 Contributors to Bachmann's Campaign Committee

Rank /Contributor /Total / from Individuals / from PACs

1 Starkey Laboratories $13,600 $13,600 $0
2 Hubbard Broadcasting $13,150 $13,150 $0
3 ACA International $10,000 $0 $10,000
3 Citizens United $10,000 $0 $10,000
3 Longhorn PAC $10,000 $0 $10,000
6 Rothschild Capital Management $9,800 $9,800 $0
7 Dart Transit $9,600 $9,600 $0
7 Johnstone Supply $9,600 $9,600 $0
7 Strom Engineering $9,600 $9,600 $0
7 Upsher-Smith Laboratories $9,600 $9,600 $0
11 Panther Arms $9,500 $9,500 $0
12 Crown Iron Works $9,200 $9,200 $0
13 Fairview Hospital $9,000 $9,000 $0
14 National Electrical Contractors Assn $8,000 $0 $8,000
15 National Beer Wholesalers Assn $7,500 $0 $7,500
16 Marquette Financial Companies $7,200 $7,200 $0
16 Slumberland $7,200 $7,200 $0
16 Uline Inc $7,200 $7,200 $0
19 PricewaterhouseCoopers $6,750 $250 $6,500
20 Halp $6,400 $6,400 $0

FYI: Hubbard Broadcasting is KSTP TV channel 5, the local privately-owned ABC affiliate, and KSTP-AM 1500 radio, which covers the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. ACA International is a trade group composed of credit and collection companies, creditors, and debt buyers. Fairview Hospital is a network of Twin Cities hospitals.

Here is a listing of the Political Action Committees (by industry) who have donated heavily to Ms. Bachmann's 2010 campaign.

Total PAC Money for 2010: $254,227
Number of Contributions: 188

Agribusiness $10,000
Communications/Electronics $9,500
Construction $15,000
Defense $1,000
Energy & Natural Resources $7,000
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate $83,500
Health $19,400
Lawyers & Lobbyists $2,000
Transportation $6,500
Misc Business $25,000
Ideological/Single-Issue $75,327

Based on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on Sunday, June 13, 2010.
2009 - 2010 Cycle PAC Contribution Breakdown
Business $178,900 (70%)
Labor $0 (0%)
Ideological/Single Issue $75,327 (30%)
Based on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on Sunday, June 13, 2010
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from the July 7, 2010 edition of the blog DUMP MICHELE BACHMANN:

"The Minnesota Chapter of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association took in a total of $1.54 million in contributions from 2005-2009 and claims to have distributed $1.06 million of that to needy veterans and other charitable causes in those same years. Yet the organization, whose founder, Bobby Thompson, donated $10,000 to Michele Bachmann’s campaign committee last April, dissolved in 2009 without explanation just as a nationwide investigation of the group by the St. Petersburg (FL) Times was getting started.

As a result of the paper’s investigation, Thompson, who is listed as the Minnesota chapter’s CFO, has disappeared from his Tampa residence, leaving no forwarding address. Thompson’s last known whereabouts was at Bachmann’s high-roller fundraiser with Sarah Palin in Minneapolis April 7 where he made his $10,000 donation to Bachmann, leading some to believe that he may be on the lam in Minnesota.

The U.S. Navy Veterans Association has been shut down by states attorneys general in Hawaii, New Mexico and Ohio. Investigations into the group are underway in Florida, Missouri and Virginia. And U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has asked the IRS to begin an investigation into the organization..."

So what do we see here? A strong concentration of money coming from out of her district and out of her state far-right ideological groups, insurance, finance and investment groups (the Wall Street, Chamber of Commerce crowd), and credit/collection/debt buyers. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, she is currently the 21st largest recipient of the 435 members in the United States House of Representatives for contributions from the insurance industry, which consists of health, life, property and car insurance companies. Not really groups representing typical, average workers or the common, everyday citizen. Next, we'll show a list of votes Bachmann has made that were not in the best interests of middle class citizens and instead favored big business or the far-right.

Bachmann has earned a "D" (13%) approval rating with The Middle Class.org for her dismal voting record which favors the wealthy and big business and is against the interests of the majority of the population, the middle class. Here is documented evidence of that poor voting record.

2009

Bill /Her Vote /Supportive of the Middle Class?

H.AMDT. 534 TO H.R. 4173
Amendment #534 (Mortgage "Cramdown" Amendment) to Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009
TOPICS: Consumers, Debt & Bankruptcy, Housing, Mortgage lending, Personal bankruptcy /NAY/NO
H.R. 4173
Wall Street Accountability and Consumer Protection Act
TOPICS: Consumers, Corporate Accountability, Corporate bankruptcy, Corporate taxes, Credit cards, Debt & Bankruptcy, Deceptive advertising and marketing, Executive compensation, Financial literacy, Government Accountability, Housing, Mortgage lending, Payday loans, Personal bankruptcy, Refund Anticipation Loans, Shareholder rights, Student loans, Tax Fairness NAY/NO
H.R. 3962
Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009
TOPICS: Consumers, Corporate Accountability, Health Care, HMOs and insurance companies, Hospitals, Medicaid, Medical research, Medicare, Prescription drugs, Public health, SCHIP, Tax Fairness, Universal health care NAY/NO
H.R. 3639
Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009
TOPICS: Consumers, Credit cards, Debt & Bankruptcy NAY/NO
H.R. 3548
Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009 - House Version
TOPICS: Economic stimulus, Unemployment, Workplace & Job Creation NAY/NO
H.R. 3269
Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act of 2009
TOPICS: Corporate Accountability, Executive compensation, Shareholder rights NAY/NO
H.R. 3221
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009
TOPICS: College tuition, Community college, Debt & Bankruptcy, Education, Job training, Pell Grants, Preschool, Student loans NAY/NO
H.R. 2847
Jobs for Main Street Act of 2009
TOPICS: Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Child care, Community college, Economic stimulus, Education, Efficient technology, Elementary school, Energy & Environment, Government Accountability, Green buildings, Green jobs, Health Care, High school, Housing, Job training, Layoffs, Medicaid, Middle school, Public employment, Public housing, Public infrastructure, Teachers, Unemployment, Workplace & Job Creation NAY/NO
H.R. 2454
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009
TOPICS: Consumers, Education, Efficient technology, Energy & Environment, Energy conservation, Global warming, Green buildings, Green jobs, Job training, Pollution, Renewable fuels NAY/NO
H.R. 1728
Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2009
TOPICS: Consumers, Debt & Bankruptcy, Housing, Mortgage lending NAY/NO
H.R. 1664
Pay for Performance Act of 2009
TOPICS: Corporate Accountability, Executive compensation NAY/NO
H.R. 1586
A Bill To Impose An Additional Tax On Bonuses Received From TARP Recipients of 2009
TOPICS: Corporate Accountability, Executive compensation, Tax Fairness NAY/NO
H.R. 1106
Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009
TOPICS: Consumers, Debt & Bankruptcy, Housing, Mortgage lending, Personal bankruptcy NAY/NO

The list goes on and on and on and on. Bachmann CONSISTENTLY votes against individuals and those in need and instead votes FOR big business and the wealthy...


Like all ultra-conservative, far-right teabaggers and Republicans, Michele Bachmann is irrationally paranoid about the power of the federal government and President Obama. She is a strong proponent of free market economics, the type which have produced numerous corporate scandals over the past 2 decades as well as the current economic mess we face. She is also a firm supporter of deregulation and a very, very limited role for government. This has led her to make numerous crazy statements over time which most normal people with common sense recognize as illofical tidbits of pure insanity. Here are some of her gems over the years:


(Reharding government regulation of BP during the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill) "They have to lift the liability cap...But if I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there - 'We're not going to be chumps, and we're not going to be fleeced.' And they shouldn't be. They shouldn't have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest - they've got to be legitimate claims...The other thing we have to remember is that Obama loves to make evil whatever company it is that he wants to get more power from. He makes them evil, and what we've got to ask ourselves is: Do we really want to be paying $9 for a gallon of gas? Because that could be the final result of this." She also described the President's $20 billion BP escrow fund as being designed to "redistribute wealth," as if it were an unjust act meant to punish an undeserving big corporation and hand all its assets over to undeserving poor Gulf residents!

"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence." -Rep. Michele Bachmann, on the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak that occurred when Republican Gerald Ford was President, NOT during Carter's term.


"I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?" -Rep. Michelle Bachmann, calling for a new McCarthyism, on the MSNBC TV show "Hardball with Chris Matthews.", Oct. 2008


"I don't know where they're going to get all this money because we're running out of rich people in this country." - (accusing the Obama administration of plotting to divert money from Republican to Democratic districts and planning to tax the wealthy to fund the windfalls, Feb. 2009) That's right, Michele---protect the rich at all costs, no matter how badly they fleece the poor or the middle class!


In March 2009, Bachmann gave an interview to the Northern Alliance Radio Network and promoted two forums she was hosting the next month in St. Cloud and Woodbury, MN, regarding President Obama's proposed cap and trade tax policy to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Bachmann stated she wanted Minnesotans "armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back." She also mentioned that Thomas Jefferson had said that "having a revolution every now and then is a good thing." According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, her quote went viral across the internet. Bachmann's office quickly clarified that she was speaking metaphorically, meaning "armed with knowledge." Then why didn't she say that in the first place?

"If we took away the minimum wage - if conceivably it was gone - we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." I propose that Michele Bachmann be put on minimum wage, and then FIRED.
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SUMMARY: Michele Bachmann is an impulsive and irrational person with delusional and paranoid fears about our government doing away with rich people. Her constant pattern of making rash, poorly thought-out statements followed by dishonest claims of having been misquoted or misunderstood is strong evidence of poor and incomplete rationalization, a most undesirable quality in a person of her responsibility. She makes public pronouncements in support of huge greedy corporations, claims loudly to be a devout Christian, but condemns any government aid for the poor or for victims of corporate excesses and greed. She advocates insurrection against the federal government. She is blatantly and unapologetically biased toward the wealthy and against the ordinary citizen. She is highly unstable.

WHO DOES BACHMANN REALLY REPRESENT? NOT YOU, American worker, retiree, or Minnesota 6th District resident! This woman is a shill for wealthy corporations, insurance companies, and big banks, and puts their interests and well-being far in front of your own! Think about it, folks: Michele Bachmann currently sits on the House Committee on Financial Services (aka the House Banking Committee). If the Republicans gain a numerical edge in this fall's election, is she the person we want to be overseeing her buddies in the insurance and banking industries? SHUDDER THE THOUGHT!

This woman is an embarrassment to her party, her district, her state, and her country. She should be retired immediately and permanently from Congress and the public payroll. PLEASE do that for us, Minnesota 6th District voters!
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