Michele Bachmann's Default Plan: Duck and Cover

GOP candidate seems to be rooting for a collapse, Dana Milbank says
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 14, 2011 10:38 AM CDT
Updated Jul 14, 2011 1:45 PM CDT
Michele Bachmann's Default Plan: Duck and Cover
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. takes part in a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 13, 2011.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Michele Bachmann doesn’t think we should raise the debt ceiling. After all, she argues, even if we hit it, we can still pay Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That plan “is the economic equivalent of the old Cold War strategy in the event of a nuclear attack,” quips Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. “If we just duck and cover, maybe it won’t be so bad.”

Bachmann’s conveniently forgetting a few expenses—minor stuff like the FBI, unemployment insurance, veterans' pay, federal prisons, and air traffic control. But never mind that. Bachmann and her allies say Obama is lying when he warns of economic catastrophe. “We need to be truthful,” Bachmann insists, as she is: Asked recently if higher unemployment would be good for her 2012 hopes, she candidly replied, “I hope so.” "And the truth is," Milbank concludes, "if she succeeds in blocking a debt-limit increase, the resulting economic collapse will improve her 2012 prospects—just as she hoped." (More Dana Milbank stories.)

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