Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says her colleagues in congress are a “dysfunctional family” when it comes to making key financial decisions for the country. 

Officials in the Obama Administration and Republican congressional leaders are negotiating on a deal that would raise the so-called “debt ceiling” but  Bachmann says “no dice”. 

“It’s time for tough love,” Bachmann told a crowd in Iowa over the weekend. “And don’t let them scare you by telling you that the country’s going to fall apart and that we’re going to default on our debt.”

Bachmann argues her fellow Republicans should be pressing for deep spending cuts instead of allowing for more borrowing.  

“In our family, my husband and I would have taken that credit card. We would have chopped that baby up and we would have said…’We’re going to live within our means,'” Bachmann said Saturday. “‘We’re going to stretch. We’re going to make do. We’re going to do without.’ That’s a concept.”

Bachmann said Americans have “no scratch” left in their pockets. 

“We need a new sherriff in Washington, D.C. because we can’t afford four more years of bleak unemployment numbers,” Bachmann said. “…We can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama.”

Bachmann campaigned in Iowa this past weekend.  Read and hear more here.