Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann held a news conference in Ankeny this afternoon to attack President Obama’s approach to the nation’s debt problem, but she stopped short of calling on her fellow Republicans in congress to join her in voting against raising the debt ceiling.
“This Republican will not vote to raise the debt ceiling. I will not vote to do that,” she told reporters. “My colleagues will have to come to their own conclusion.”
Bachmann– who has been a member of congress since 2007, representing a district in Minnesota — questioned whether August 3rd is a real deadline day for making a decision or face a default on the nation’s debt.
“I encourage all of my colleagues in the House and Senate as well as the president to listen to what the American people are saying,” Bachmann said. “…’Don’t raise the debt ceiling.’ I hear that at every stop I’m at.”
Bachmann is not supportive of the plan being advanced by the top Republican in the U.S. House, because while it calls for cuts in federal spending, it would also raise the nation’s credit limit.
“I think it’s the wrong premise because what we need is a fundamental restructuring of our economy,” Bachmann said. “That is not occurring.”
Bachmann accused President Obama of talking-down to the American people on the issue and she accused all the politicians in Washington, D.C. of being out-of-touch with the American people.
