Opinion: Michele Bachmann says Obama ‘doesn’t grasp the magnitude of our national debt’

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Michele Bachmann was not impressed with President Obama’s address to the nation Monday when he expressed the frustration he is having trying to reach a compromise with Republicans on raising the debt ceiling.

“Shame on President Obama for casting the American people aside as collateral damage, as he continues his political gamesmanship with the national debt crisis. The problem with the president’s plan is that he’s operating from the wrong assumption -- that we need to increase the debt limit to pay for increased spending,’ Bachmann said in a statement from Iowa where she has been campaigning in her quest to unseat Obama.

‘Despite what President Obama says, the people of this country understand what raising the debt limit means. It’s the president who doesn’t grasp the magnitude of our national debt; he compares it to ‘a little credit card debt’ when, in fact, our ‘national credit cards’ are maxed out,’ the conservative ‘tea party’ darling wrote from Cedar Rapids.

Obama’s plan to cut trillions of dollars from a variety of places, including entitlements, while raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and closing loopholes for corporations fell on deaf ears, the Minnesota congresswoman said.

“President Obama isn’t listening to the American people. Not one person in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina has told me that we need a ‘balanced approach,’ which, of course, is code for higher taxes and spending,’ Bachmann wrote.

In his speech, Obama said raising the debt ceiling would not allow Washington to burn through more tax revenues. ‘Understand –- raising the debt ceiling does not allow Congress to spend more money,’ Obama explained. ‘It simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up. In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it seven times. And we have to do it by next Tuesday, August 2nd, or else we won’t be able to pay all of our bills.’

Bachmann doesn’t seem to care about any of that so-called history.

‘Let me be clear: I will not vote to raise the debt limit. The Congress and the president should not raise the debt limit,’ she wrote.

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Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota speaks during a rally at the Delaware County fairgrounds in Manchester, Iowa, on Monday. Credit: AP/Charlie Neibergall