Michele Bachmann: Don't forget about the immigration bill

July 10, 2013

Writer

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) spoke with Stu and Pat on radio this morning, and she warned that the immigration bill is still being pushed through behind-the-scenes even though no one is paying attention to it right now. Rep. Bachmann warns that a flowery sounding bill will ultimately be presented, but she advised that no matter what is put forth it should be voted against.

Read a full transcript of the interview below:

PAT: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann joins us today. There's the debate still going on, and we forget about this sometimes because other things come up in our lives and we forget that the Senate has passed an immigration reform bill that is nightmarish and then, you know, so we let our guard down and then pretty soon you know it's coming up in the House and so we thought we'd check in with her and see where that stands right now. And earlier this week Congressman Bachmann congresswoman Bachmann, you spoke on the house floor and your one of your main points was seal the border first, then we'll work on amnesty afterward, which seems so incredibly reasonable to almost all Americans and yet it's not being considered. How did that go over? Where does all this stand right now?

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Well, Pat and Stu, thanks for having me on because we really are at the crucial hour right now. It seems that some sort of a weird tack has been made between the ruling class and D.C. That's both Republican and Democrat. And it seems like they've made a decision that this is it. Everyone is going to help Obama achieve his number one political agenda item, which is to bring in tens of millions of new voters to support his agenda. Why in the world any self respecting Republican would want to get behind this effort is beyond me, but it seems like this is what they want to do. Their first worry is not border security. The Senate bill was a fake border security bill. We were betrayed and lied to by the Republicans in the Senate. So we don't have a border security bill. And the way that you pass a bill is you've got to get a bill through the Senate, a bill through the House and on the president's desk. Well, two out of the three are effectively done. We know that the president will sign a bill that has amnesty in it. The Senate already passed it. Now it's up to the House. So what is about to happen to the House is that we're going to get what I call a Trojan horse. It will be a bill that will sound great, it will be all about border security, and who couldn't get behind that? But if that bill passes with the help of conservatives out of the House, it goes to what's called a conference committee. Because the bill won't be the same as the bill that came out of the Senate. That's where the politicians get together behind closed doors and they figure out one compromised bill that goes back to the chamber. Well, the one must have for President Obama is legalization, and legalization equals amnesty, which equals citizenship, which equals tens of millions of new voters that will vote to forever cement in place his progressive agenda. This is where the whole thing breaks down. So we have not had one minute of discussion for the whole Republican conference in the House.

Now recognize we're the only backstop that can say no, and we haven't had a minute's worth of discussion. We're going to finally, this afternoon at 3:00 Eastern time, have our very first meeting on this issue of immigration and what the Republican establishment is planning to do is introduce their two bills, the one out of judiciary, and the one out of Homeland Security† the Trojan horse bill, which is what I call it† and they will tell us look at this bill and how great the bill is, but the fact is it will never, ever come back to us for final vote in that form. And what I'm going to do is not vote for any bill, no matter how good it sounds, because right now we're lacking the political will in the White House to ever support and ever enforce border security. We saw that this week with the president. He decided he didn't want to enforce parts of ObamaCare. So he's not going to. It's unconstitutional, but he's getting away with it. And so that's what's going to happen.

We already passed a bill to build 700 miles of fence in 2006 and we paid for it. And so my question is, if we already passed a bill to build a fence, where is it? Where's the money? Where's the fence? Where's the billions? I want my billions back. Either give me a fence or give me my billions back.

STU: Michelle, you're

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: So we've already done that seven years ago. And if 27 years ago we promised that we would build a fence, why when Barack Obama's president and when Janet Napolitano would be the chief enforcer of building a fence, I mean, on what planet would we ever think that this is going to happen? And so it's time to wake up and slap some reality on your face and recognize this has nothing to do about with border security. It has everything to do with giving Barack Obama tens of millions of new progressive voters to finally change the country once and forever so that constitutional conservatives will effectively be blocked out of the marketplace of ideas in the future because, just because of numbers. There won't be enough of us.

So this is very big. This is very real. I'm not here to cry wolf. This is probably the most important vote that we're going to take in the next two years and, quite frankly, we haven't seen the phone lines melt yet in Washington. And so what I just want to encourage your listeners at Glenn Beck to do is that on the Senate side is hopeless. Give up on them. Don't even bother calling them on this. We've been betrayed. Focus only on the House because I will tell you, you would be shocked at the number of people who are Republicans, who call themselves conservatives, who are in favor of an amnesty bill. You would be floored. So we need these phone lines melted and quick because the establishment wants to get this bill passed out of the House before August. And so right now my message is simple: No bill. No immigration bill. Until we can certify and see it for ourselves that that southern border is secure, there's nothing to talk about.

STU: And Michele, you only need a couple dozen Republicans here, right? You only need a couple dozen Republicans to entertain these ideas to† because the Democrats are all, of course, going to vote for it. So it's not even the fact that you need to win everybody over. They only need to pull a couple dozen from the establishment and they can get this thing passed, right?

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Thank you for saying that because that's what's going to happen with the Trojan horse. You're right. We passed this sweet smelling bill out of the house, it goes to conference committee, it comes back. Pelosi and all† and nearly every Democrat will vote for the bill. So just like you said, Pat and Stu, all the Democrats need are a few Republicans who think they are being magnanimous, a couple dozen, and we lose. And the country changes forever. So this is crucial. It's really gone under the radar because we've been kind of overhyped with news lately. You know, with everything from a plane crash, everything else going on, people just aren't paying attention to this issue and that's why we† again, I'm not trying to cry wolf. I'm just saying that this is it, and this is going to come up very quick. It's going to slide through without a lot of fanfare. The mainstream media certainly doesn't want to talk about it because they want it to pass and so this is it. I mean, we need base conservatives to call their members. And don't assume just because you have a Republican member of congress that they're good on this issue. Get them on the record. Make them tell you that they won't vote for any bill. Because President Obama's already proved it. He's not going to enforce a law that he doesn't agree with. He's an unconstitutional acting president. And so that's why this is so crucial.

PAT: Now, if they call† and they can call 202 224 3121. That's the Capitol Hill switchboard.

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Yes.

PAT: Does it do any good, Michele, to call other people's reps, or are you suggesting they just call their own and make sure their own representative is on board with this thing?

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Call your own. That's the most important†

PAT: Yeah.

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: -- for people to do. But people also have a contact list on their computer, their smart phone or their iPad, and what I'm saying too is send that, put out on your Facebook or put out a tweet or send out to your contact list just a quick, you know, one sentence or couple of paragraphs. You know, just trust me on this, you've got to call your rep and tell them don't vote for any immigration bill, not until we get a fence built. Because I don't want any more promises. I want to see an actual sense that's actually doing the job because otherwise the bill that we will get will be perpetual amnesty. Until never again be any effective deportation done ever, and we will have ongoing amnesty. And we are literally looking at letting more people in, in the next ten years than we did in the previous 40. And amnesty isn't cheap. It will be over $6 trillion. Half of that alone will just pay for retirement benefits for illegal aliens. So the worst possible time, when we're $17 trillion in debt, and that's just part of the debt. When we're $17 trillion in debt and baby boomers like me are about to draw down on Social Security and Medicare benefits that we've earned and paid in for, we're looking at tens of millions of new people coming into the country who've never paid in and yet they'll be drawing down Social Security. They'll be drawing down Medicare. And they will have the right to bring in their parents who can draw down from Social Security and from Medicare. And just so you know, one portion of Medicare is said to be bankrupt. The hospital portion will be bankrupt by 2017. That's four years from now. So the one thing seniors fear is going to the hospital because they want to know that their Medicare will pay for it. Well, it's broke in four years. And so we're going to swamp the system with tens of millions of new people who are sicker and poorer and have no means of paying their hospital bills? This is a disaster and that's why we've got to stop it in its tracks and so we are putting everything right now into this effort to let the public know that you cannot trust your own member of congress on this issue. You have to be adamant. You have to be insistent. You have to call, call, call. You have to get everybody that you know to call, call, call and say, look, we're not putting up with any state border security bills. We can't trust the president to enforce the border and so we are not going to take up anything right now until you build us a fence. Build me the fence. Where is my fence that I paid for in 2006? Give me my fence or give me my money back. That's my message.

PAT: Appreciate it, Michele. And thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. Thanks, and tell Steve king and Louie Gohmert, the three of you are spearheading this thing, thank you for what you're doing. And there's about 70 representatives who are on board with stopping any bill from being passed in the House for all the reasons that Michele just so eloquently outlined. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. We'll talk to you again soon. 202 224 3121 is the number to call to get in touch with your representatives. That's the Capitol Hill switchboard. And then just ask for your representative. And if you don't know who your representative is, Google it. It's really not that hard to find. We can't tell you who your rep is because we're not positive where you're listening right now. So, you know, just find that out. Call your representative. Hopefully you voted for†

STU: Yeah.

PAT: or against your representative. So you know.

STU: You should probably know at this point, yeah.

PAT: But the number is 202 224 3121. And it is important. Because if they pass any bill, then they reconcile the Senate bill with the House bill and that's where the trouble comes in. It comes in, in the compromise and the reconciliation process and then you've got something that we can't live with. And it's amnesty without any border security.

STU: Yeah.

PAT: And it's going to turn out to be a nightmare.

STU: And two things to think about how important the left feels this is, and as well as Michele correctly pointed out over and over again, the Republican establishment. How important is this stuff to them? First of all, remember, the president of the United States wanted the DREAM Act so badly, as did many people who were in the Republican establishment and they tried so hard to get it and then they just did it because they couldn't get it voted in. So they just did it by executive order. And then the 2006 bill she talked about, that was a bill that was passed, 700 miles of fencing, and then they just passed something else the next year in part of another big bill that said, well, we don't really have to build that fence. This is what they'll do.

PAT: Yeah.

STU: They will do anything they can.

PAT: And they got the same provision in this new Senate thing, too, that Napolitano can call it off and, you know, she will again.

STU: Of course.

PAT: She just will.

How private stewardship could REVIVE America’s wild

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

EXPOSED: Why the left’s trans agenda just CRASHED at SCOTUS

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

You never know what you’re going to get with the U.S. Supreme Court these days.

For all of the Left’s insane panic over having six supposedly conservative justices on the court, the decisions have been much more of a mixed bag. But thank God – sincerely – there was a seismic win for common sense at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It’s a win for American children, parents, and for truth itself.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s state ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors.

The mostly conservative justices stood tall in this case, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson predictably dissented. This isn’t just Tennessee’s victory – 20 other red states that have similar bans can now breathe easier, knowing they can protect vulnerable children from these sick, experimental, life-altering procedures.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s rooted in a very simple truth that common sense Americans get: kids cannot consent to permanent damage. The science backs this up – Norway, Finland, and the UK have all sounded alarms about the lack of evidence for so-called “gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration’s recent HHS report shredded the activist claims that these treatments help kids’ mental health. Nothing about this is “healthcare.” It is absolute harm.

The Left, the ACLU, and the Biden DOJ screamed “discrimination” and tried to twist the Constitution to force this radical ideology on our kids.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saw through it this time. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett nailed it: gender identity is not some fixed, immutable trait like race or sex. Detransitioners are speaking out, regretting the surgeries and hormones they were rushed into as teens. WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the supposed experts on this, knew that kids cannot fully grasp this decision, and their own leaked documents prove that they knew it. But they pushed operations and treatments on kids anyway.

This decision is about protecting the innocent from a dangerous ideology that denies biology and reality. Tennessee’s Attorney General calls this a “landmark victory in defense of America’s children.” He’s right. This time at least, the Supreme Court refused to let judicial activism steal our kids’ futures. Now every state needs to follow Tennessee’s lead on this, and maybe the tide will continue to turn.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

EXPOSED: Your tax dollars FUND Marxist riots in LA

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.