Editorial: Michele Bachmann's 'bombshell' is a dud

Star Tribune Editorial

Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann garnered national news coverage earlier this year when she set up classes on the U.S. Constitution for congressional colleagues.

Bachmann's latest diatribe against health care reform suggests that she personally needs a refresher course on the Ten Commandments -- specifically, the one that warns against bearing false witness.

Bachmann has long had a reputation as a policy lightweight and rhetorical bomb-thrower -- something that cost her a shot at the GOP's No. 4 leadership position in the U.S. House late last year.

Her stunt last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" further undermined her credibility by adding to the evidence that she plays recklessly with facts.

Bachmann already is notorious for claims that there are anti-American members of Congress and that President Obama spent $200 million a day on his India trip last year.

Asked by TV host David Gregory about the federal budget stalemate, Bachmann instead charged that "secretly, unbeknownst to members of Congress, over $105 billion was hidden on the 'Obamacare' legislation to fund implementation of Obamacare."

Bachmann repeated the claim, calling it a "bombshell" and "crime against democracy."

A press release from her office went out with this headline: "Bachmann Exposes Legislative Fraud in ObamaCare."

The bill does spend about $105 billion over the next 10 years to implement the Affordable Care Act -- this newspaper's analysis was $103.1 billion.

But there is no basis for Bachmann's claim that the implementation money was inserted "secretly," which is the foundation for her claims about deception. Not even the conservative Heritage Foundation report that inspired Bachmann's claims says the money was smuggled into the bill "secretly."

The author, former Oklahoma Republican Rep. Ernest Istook, wrote that it will be hard to defund the bill, but he does not charge Democrats or the White House with fraud. Istook said in an e-mail statement this week that he would instead characterize the situation as "trying to find needles in an enormous haystack [the 2,700-page bill]."

Istook's analysis was based on an October 2010 Congressional Research Service report. The CRS report also does not say or imply that there was anything secret or nefarious about the bill's funding.

The health reform bill was sprawling. But like other legislation, it was a public document and was available on the Internet. Its spending components were analyzed throughout the legislative process by the Congressional Budget Office, which scored the bill.

CBO reports are also public documents. If the funding was a "secret," it's only because Bachmann didn't read the bill. Her office this week blamed the press for not calling the money to the attention of Congress.

As for claims from Bachmann and Istook that the funding in the health care bill is unusual, it's not.

The U.S. Senate recently approved, with bipartisan support, a bill that calls for Federal Aviation Administration reforms; some of the money needed to carry out changes in coming years is appropriated in the bill.

Late last year, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn criticized the Food Safety Modernization Act because it did not appropriate money for its reforms.

Some perspective is also needed on the health care bill's $105 billion, which works out to slightly more than $10 billion a year. The biggest chunk of money goes for a children's health insurance program.

Other funds will implement measures such as a center for comparative research that will help rein in soaring drug costs. Another $11 billion will go over the next five years to community health centers -- an appropriation this newspaper supported editorially last May.

For perspective, $10 billion is less than half of 1 percent of the nation's $2.4 trillion annual medical spending -- a modest sum to overhaul a gargantuan system.

Bachmann's spurious claims help get her invited onto national TV and radio shows. She shouldn't confuse that notoriety with credibility.

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