Bachmann Urges Tea Party to Keep up the Fight

Washington, May 9 -

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06), the Chairman of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, issued the following statement to the attendees of today’s Tea Party event at the National Press Club:

"The Tea Party is everyday Americans, and everyday Americans want Congress to stop frittering around the edges of our government’s spending crisis with small cuts. They don’t want the debt ceiling raised and they are demanding that Washington live within its means. I’m not able to be with you at today’s Tea Party press event. If I were there I would tell you that I hear you and I agree: it’s time to reject the debt ceiling scare tactics and address the truly frightening reality that our debt is at $14 trillion and growing.

"The debt ceiling vote will offer an opportunity that was squandered during the vote for the 2011 Continuing Resolution. Even as you gather in Washington today, bureaucrats are spending tax dollars to plant the roots of ObamaCare and make it nearly impossible for us to stop this massive, job-destroying, budget-busting entitlement. Any vote on the debt ceiling must include a vote to fully defund ObamaCare. To do less is to insure that next debt ceiling vote – the 75th increase in the last half-century – will not be the last, and that is unacceptable.

"Thank you to the Tea Party for not giving up the fight. Your stubborn determination to return our country to its founding principles gives me great hope for conservative accomplishments in the current House of Representatives and for even greater victories in 2012."