Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has such a poor understanding of the Constitution that even the conservative blog Redstate complained her views are “either ignorance on display or dishonest pandering.” She jumped on the absurd claim that health reform violates the Constitution even before conservatives settled upon a reason for making that false claim. She offered a deeply confused argument claiming that the Department of Education is unconstitutional. She’s pledged to openly defy the Supreme Court if she disagrees with its decisions. And she even once suggested Census forms are unconstitutional.
Bachmann’s now bringing her crackerjack understanding of the nation’s founding document to the so-called super committee responsible for coming up with a plan to cut the nation’s deficit:
“I think it’s wrong and unconstitutional to hand over the entire budget to 12 people,” she said of the 12-member bipartisan panel. [...] “We wouldn’t consider spending more money than what we took in. That’s the kind of thinking that has to return to Washington DC,” she said. “That’s why the super committee is such a bad idea.”
It’s not even clear from this statement that Bachmann understands what the super committee is. If Bachmann is upset that the federal government is “spending more money than what we took in,” then one would think that she would support a committee created to impose misguided austerity upon the nation.
Moreover, Bachmann is simply wrong that the super committee “hand[s] over the entire budget to 12 people” — something that actually would make it unconstitutional if it were true. Any bill that emerges from the committee must still be passed by both houses and signed by the president, just like any other law.
Simply put, Bachmann has no real interest in evaluating whether the super committee — or anything else for that matter — is actually unconstitutional. She’s just completely convinced that the Constitution must be read according to her most uninformed whims.
Previous in TP Justice
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.