Michele Bachmann last night said that President Obama under “Obamacare” could mandate the number of children a family is allowed to have, or that the government would pay for. Bachmann suggested President Obama is a “health care dictator” and said he now has the power to demand insurance companies offer “sterilizations” in addition to contraceptive care under the Affordable Care Act.
Bachmann appeared on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website “Real News” program, and offered her special brand of logic.
At one point, stunned conservative co-host Amy Holmes asked if Bachmann was suggesting Obama would advocate a “one-child policy like Communist China?â€
Talking Points Memo, who provided the video and transcript, notes:
“To her credit, Bachmann’s latest spin shows a creative mirror image of the ‘death panel’ smear, which was based on voluntary end-of-life counseling — starting at the other end of life, from a policy intended for women to have the opportunity to easily obtain contraceptives if they wish.”
Listen to what the former GOP presidential candidate had to say:
“Women have a lot to lose under Obamacare, and I’ll give you an example. If you want to go into specifics, what the government can give, the government can take away. It certainly isn’t beyond the pale to think, in light of Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary — she said that it’s important that we have contraceptives because that prevents pregnancy, and pregnancy is more expensive to the federal government.
“Going with that logic, according to our own Health and Human Services Secretary, it isn’t far-fetched to think that the President of the United States could say, we need to save health care expenses — the federal government will only pay for one baby to be born in the hospital per family, or two babies to be born per family. That could happen. We think it couldn’t?”
Co-host Amy Holmes then asked: “Congresswoman, are you suggesting that this administration, or a next administration, would actually advocate a one-child policy like Communist China?â€
Bachmann responded: “What I’m saying is that now that we know the President of the United States unilaterally can tell insurance companies, you must offer the morning-after abortion pill, you must offer sterilizations, you must offer contraceptives free to the recipients of those products, because we tell you to — which means they’re effectively setting the price, as well — that says that whoever the health care dictator, could conceivably make that order, as well.”
“There’s nothing that this president, one person, would be limited from doing. That’s how profound that is. I’m not saying that he is going to do it. I’m saying that he has the power and the authority to do it. We don’t want anyone to have that level of authority.â€