Bachmann Heckled At Health Care Town Hall (VIDEO)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) held her first town hall of the August recess on Thursday night in Lake Elmo, and she faced a raucous crowd.

After a rambling introduction that turned into a joke about President Obama playing golf with Tiger Woods, the Republican congresswoman was interrupted by shouts of "Health care! Health care!"

Watch (via Dusty Trice):

Reports say the crowd was mostly friendly to Bachmann, but not entirely. "I would first like to thank you for turning a Reagan voter into a DFL activist," said one attendee.

Bachmann was not cowed by the opposition. After she told a story about women having to give birth in hospital hallways, an angry male constituent yelled, "That happens here." Bachmann retorted, "I've given birth here probably more times than you, sir."

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Comments

[JavaManiac]

Poor Minnesota - I bet they cannot wait for the next election to get rid of this loose cannon. How embarrassing. She is making Minnesotans look like Texas politicians.

[devans00]

I don't get why these people keep saying stuff like, "I'm afraid Obama and his people are going to take over."

Where were they in November 2008? Obama was elected president by a majority of voters. If that's not taking over, I don't know what is. The Obama Administration has been in command since late January 2009. If they haven't triggered the apocalypse by now, somehow, I don't think it's going to happen.

[BlackDemfromNH]

Dear God, help me..
I am so, so, so, SO tired of hearing these ignorant fools spew there nonsense and, often times, outright lies. This guy who stood up and claimed that he is afraid the Obama administration won't leave office after 4 or 8 years, that Obama will try to remain in office beyond his term or terms. Really?? If I could speak to this bone-head face to face I'd shake him vigorously and say, "SNAP OUT OF IT! COME BACK TO THE REAL WORLD, YOU NITWIT!!" What freakin' planet do these people live on, anyway?? They are sooooooo detached from reality that one has to wonder about their sanity.

[decrepittex]

What a joke. Was this a debate about health care or her claiming credit for Bret Farve coming to
the Vikings? And that "God fearing Christian Conservative" is kinda like Bush being a
"Compasionate Conservative". He's afraid Obama is going to create a dictatorship or
something? I'm sure Bachman will never have to worry about having a baby in a hallway
since she probably has the "best health care in the world". But since two people have died
in the emergency waiting room (two that we know about) of hospitals that doesn't apply to
everyone in the US.

[phyllisFL]

Everytime I watch Michelle Bachmann on cable like Chris Mathews, I cannot believe some of the prejudice things she says. Especially that the government should be interviewed to check out if they have American values or not. I listened to her rally and would have walked out. Evidently, all she did was go over how the country is in debt that did not happened during the Bush years. She is speaking to this group about what a trillion dollars looks like, how many feet, miles and blocks. Does she think she has children in the audience. It sounded like the government has so much debt, is out of control, and how is it possible that they can afford healthcare. What is more important, answering these people's questions and telling them the advantages of healthcare or to try to convince them that the government owes so much money, I hope you don't think we can also handle and afford healthcare.
She thinks she is on the Glen Beck show. I am glad I have Debbie Shultz here. Michelle Bachmann is very scary, and she sounds like she is against her own government. What is she doing there in that position? I had my first surgery and my benefits went up 20% two months later.

[Mazzle]

People are constantly conflating having the best doctors in the world with having the best health care in the world. They claim that because we have the best doctors, we also have the best healthcare. The two are not the same thing. Ironically, the fact that we do have the best doctors should actually highlight how bad our system is. It's shameful that we have one of the worst performing health care systems despite the quality of our doctors and technology. Why aren't people calling them out on this obvious logical fallacy?

[history repeats]

exactly

[teasley]

Am I to assume from the story that there were Democratic "plants" and "instigaters" in the audience that were only there to disrupt the proceedings. This couldn't be, after how the left claimed that everyone should sit quietly and listen at these town halls.

[brantl]

She still got to talk, didn't she? That's not what the 'pubs did, they tried to disrupt the whole meeting.

[history repeats]

we dont think the loons in these townhall meetings are plants they are just manipulated very easily. these are the same people that give all their money to evangelicals and believe the earth is 6000 yrs old and evolution is just a theory....)its a SCIENTIFIC theory, but since most of these people think science is evil they dont understand the difference....they think it means it's a GUESS or something. my favorite is the people that say "im not some crazy right wing im just a normal conservative christian", as if their is a difference!!!

[CJ1]

Disrupt proceedings?? You obviously don't understand how a town hall is supposed to work. She is supposed to answer questions and talk to her constituents, not babble on in a lecture style rant. Her "intro" is the whole meeting. They never got to the "town hall" part, and people had questions that she was clearly not going to allow to be asked. She might as well have made a tv ad.

[believethelie]

I've never thought there were "plants" at town halls yelling and screaming
and from what I have read, the "left' claimed that everyone should communicate with calm and respectful discourse....

[tribalogical]

So, aside from her rambling "anti-Obama reform" opener, did she back up her declaration that, "We're all for reform, we want reform!" with a clear definition of the 'alternate' reform she is proposing or backing?

She shot down HR 3200, raised a lot of scary topics, pointed to the evils of "government takeovers" by highlighting a bogus story from the UK, and brushed off criticisms with meaningless retorts....

So we know what she's "against" in excruciating detail. What is she "for"?

Oh, she's for "reform"!!! OK, yay! In what form? What specifically? How would she specifically "reform" health care?

The only 'feel-good' point she made was, "control costs". That's pretty darned shallow. If I were from MN I'd want to know what policy and legislation she's planning to vote for. In detail. WIth specifics.... she didn't deliver any of THAT at her "town hall"......

It seems the Republican mantra right now is, "Control costs in a free market"... With regulation? No, no, we need less of that.

What I'm seeing promoted is a proven recipe for epic failure, based on the timing and the historical record.

[sandboxreport]

Breaking News - Nation Cranky: Maybe Nation Needs A Nap? - http://sandboxreport.com/?p=444

[games456]

Woman gave birth in a hall way.. What about the 2 people who on two different occasions DIED!! in the hospital waiting room without anyone even noticing right here in the USA!

[Henry Chukuka]

Bachmann retorted, "I've given birth here probably more times than you, sir."

Probably?

This woman has the power to decide how to vote on healthcare..yet she is unable to determine if she has birthed more children than her male constituent?

Welcome to the greatest country on earth ....
wakka wakka wakka

[games456]

I thought the same thing. I swear to it's like us vs the pod people.

[tribalogical]

Not only the ridiculous level of 'stating the obvious', but... What kind of answer was that in context of his response?

She was demonizing universal health care by relating the story of "women forced to give birth in hallways in the UK"...

The man was pointing out how that's not exclusive to universal systems, and even happens here....

So, does the fact that she's given birth (and he obviously hasn't), give her exclusive dominion over the topic or something? How disrespectful! IN the end, it was a professional political brush-off & redirect...

Speaking of disrespectful, the first thought that shot through my head when she said "I've given birth more times than you..." was, "oh dear lord no! It's bad enough there's one of her, and now she's breeding!!!"

A moment where reality is more terrible than the impropriety of my thoughts....

[tribalogical]

perhaps it was determined that your contribution to the "debate" wasn't that honest?

[tribalogical]

oops, posted in reply to the wrong comment.......

[BFare]

But it made sense in a Bachmann, "I've probably given birth more times than you"- kind of way. Same amount of relevance to the original point.

[dogman44]

Too, too funny!

[jimpager]

Sorry, couldn't get past the blather...made it to about 2 minutes then gave up. Did she say anything more than she was thankful and supported playing the national anthem?

[tribalogical]

yes, she talked about how expensive hr 3200 will be, and illustrated by educating us on the number of years a billion seconds is, and the number of years a trillion seconds is, then comparing those differences, and finally how high a stack of dollars that budget would be (lots and lots taller than Mt. Everest) and therefore this is really important........ o.O

and then went on about how awful "government takeovers" in places like the UK have been, and that this is all about "taking control of our decisions and costs" vs "the government having control of that".......

I'm not saying it made anymore sense than the first few minutes....!

Then there was the guy that took the mic and expressed his concern that when it came time for Obama to leave office, he wouldn't give up power.... funny, I recall people having the same concern about Bush...

So, in short.. I don't think you missed much. Some good, balanced thinkers were obviously in that audience too, and at least they got to make themselves heard, if only partially.

[jimpager]

Tribal,

THANK YOU. Excellent overview. I'm delighted you could see it through. I just don't have the staying power I used to. Thanx again.

Jimpager

[history repeats]

watch the second video. the first one is pointless.

[marylandtravelinman]

And THEY are afraid of Obama? I would love to know how many people in that audience didn't have health care or was related to someone that didn't. Truth plays no role in the Republican party.

[gevan]

American Health Care is the best in the world for those with unlimited funds. For the rest of us, not so much. But being 27th or 43rd in something is not indicative that things couldn't be worse. When the global warming hits Minnesota, most of them will likely enjoy it very much. Except for the mosquitos that is.

[MobMan]

Another route to excellent health coverage in this country is to work hard and do well in your career.

[BlackDemfromNH]

So, basically, under that premise, excellent healthcare is nothing more than a gamble.

[boredwell]

Michelle's reply to the "heckler" meant what exactly? Besides nothing, that is.

[CJ1]

It meant that since her rich a@@ was not stuck in a hospital hallway when pregnant, then it doesn't happen in the U.S. B/c of course, she is the only one who occupies her universe...