Michele Bachmann
I was born into a Christian family and brought up in a Lutheran church. My faith has been the center point of my life, really, since I was a child, but at 16 years of age, I fully surrendered my life over to Christ. At that point, as a teenager, I began to grasp the concept of Christ's true love and forgiveness.Collection: Family
I want my candidacy for the presidency of the United States to stand for a moment when we the people, stand once again for the independence from a government that has gotten too big and spends too much and has taken away too much of our liberties.Collection: Independence
The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our teacher. That's why, in prayer, we can ask the Lord to open up Scripture and make it come alive to us, to open our understanding. He left his Spirit with us until we join him in Heaven.Collection: Teacher
Certainly people make mistakes in their life. I'm no different, I've made mistakes. When people mess up, we forgive them. When I mess up, I ask for forgiveness.Collection: Forgiveness
My parents were divorced when I was a young teenager, and I was raised by a single mother after that. So, I understand the difficulties that families have. I understand single parenting.Collection: Parenting
It's tough to find a place not to like in Switzerland.
Literally, if we took away the minimum wage - if conceivably it was gone - we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.
We're running out of rich people in this country.
Small business is the backbone of our economy. I'm for big business, too. But small business is where the jobs are generated.
The government has no business telling an individual what kind of light bulb to buy.
I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would be - would love to see an expose like that.
What people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward.
People think when you have a, quote, 'bank failure,' that that is the end of the bank. And it isn't necessarily.
I'd like to give zero out capital gains tax and zero out the dividends tax, zero out alternative minimum tax, and zero out the death tax.
Morals are built on religious faith. Virtue is built on morality and influences a culture.
I'm not only a lawyer, I have a post doctorate degree in federal tax law from William and Mary. I work in serious scholarship and work in the United States federal tax court. My husband and I raised five kids. We've raised 23 foster children. We've applied ourselves to education reform. We started a charter school for at-risk kids.
Where do we say that a cell became a blade of grass, which became a starfish, which became a cat, which became a donkey, which became a human being? There's a real lack of evidence from change from actual species to a different type of species.
I pledge to you I'm not a talker. I'm a doer.
Though I'm a congresswoman by title, a politician I've never been.
The Constitution is government's stop sign. It says, you - the three branches of government - can go so far and no farther.
I think that it's important that the American people know that Barack Obama didn't have a mild association with Bill Ayers, he had a very strong association with Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers is not someone that the average American wants to see their president have an association with.
All of the problems we're facing with debt are manmade problems. We created them. It's called fantasy economics. Fantasy economics only works in a fantasy world. It doesn't work in reality.
It would be fun to have someone in the White House who has worked in the private sector... and someone who understands that wealth creation is a good thing and they want more of it. Wealth is good.
After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money we don't have. But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country.
If we want to kill Obamacare and we want to end socialized medicine, it must be done in the next election!
I am a fighter. I'm not just there to go along and get along.
I've given birth to five babies and I breastfed every single one of these babies. To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies. You wanna talk about the nanny state? I think we just got the new definition of a nanny.
It isn't that I was born thinking I had to be president. I'm getting a lot of encouragement to run from people across the country. I don't believe this is a rash decision.
I come here as one of you - an Iowan!
I come from a modest background. I put myself through college and law school and a postdoctorate program in tax law.
We need a strong, bold constitutional conservative who won't back down and who will fight for the values we believe in. That's what we need for our nominee, whether it is me or whether it is someone else.
Well, what did we buy? Instead of a leaner, smarter government, we bought a bureaucracy that now tells us which light bulbs to buy, and which will put 16,500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama's health care bill.
My husband and I had five biological children but we also have been raising 23 foster children.
I thought if anyone need a leg up, it was our foster children. So, I started getting involved in education reform, and that was back in 1998. And as a result of all the reform work that I had done, people urged me to run for the Minnesota state Senate. I did, I was there for six years.
I was in the Minnesota state Senate from 2000 until 2006. In 2006, I was urged to run for Congress, I did. And I've been here ever since.
I think what separates me from the candidates is the fact that I have a proven track record of being a fighter. A fighting for what people believe in, whether it is popular or not. Despite the opposition, I stand true. Because people know that I will do what I say. And that I say what I do.
During my first term in Congress, I signed a pledge that I will take no more earmarks and I've been faithful to that pledge.
What I want to do is to make sure that we fully repeal Obamacare. This will be one of the largest spending initiatives we will ever see in our country. And also, it will take away choice from the American people.
I think it's best if there's an amendment that goes on the ballot where the people can weigh in. Every time this issue has gone on the ballot, the people have voted to retain the traditional definition of marriage as recently as California in 2008.
I do support a constitutional amendment on marriage between a man and a woman, but I would not be going into the states to overturn their state law.
I think you may see again a rise at the federal government level for a - a call for the federal constitutional amendment, because people want to make sure that this definition of marriage remains secure, because after all, the family is the fundamental unit of government.
When I was in Minnesota serving in the state Senate and in Washington, D.C., I did everything I could to defeat cap and trade. I didn't work to implement cap and trade.
I always worked very hard against the unconstitutional individual mandate in health care. I didn't praise it.
A normal way that the American free market system has worked is that we have a process of unwinding. It's called bankruptcy. It doesn't mean, necessarily, that the industry is eclipsed or that it's gone. Often times, the phoenix rises out of the ashes.
I was opposed to the U.S. involvement in Libya from the very start. President Obama has never made a compelling national security case on Libya.
My view of foreign policy is that we need to be careful and circumspect about United States intervention in any foreign nation.
The American people's vote can't be bought.
The Tea Party is an organic, spontaneous movement that rose up in opposition to to the Pelosi-Reid-Obama agenda.
The biased left-wing media does what it wants. That's not going to define me or hamper me.
No politician was more maligned than Ronald Reagan.