US Rep. Michele Bachmann: SC A 'GOP Paradise'
COLUMIA, S.C. (AP) -- COLUMIA, S.C. (AP) -- Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said Saturday that it was great to be in a "GOP paradise" like conservative South Carolina, a key state in the presidential primaries.
Bachmann sounded like she was on the campaign trail when she spoke to more than 100 people at a South Carolina Federation of Republican Women luncheon.
She and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., took bows for their work last Friday and into Saturday morning as the U.S. House came up with billions of dollars in budget cuts.
Next on the chopping block, she said, is about $10 billion in funding for the health care reform law, which she called "the crown jewel of socialism."
"We must get rid of Obamacare," she said. "We had a great first step in the 2010 election when we won back the House of Representatives."
The next step, Bachmann said, is to win the Senate and the White House in 2012.
"I'm hopeful and very optimistic about where we're going to go in 2012," she said.
South Carolina will hold the first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary, and it has been considered a key state to winning the GOP nomination.
Bachmann has not decided if she will run for president in 2012. Her consideration is taking her to other early contest states including Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
She drew applause when she defended the tea party activists, saying they are simply people who think taxes and the deficit are too high and support the U.S. Constitution.
"And these are the scary people?" she said.
She said South Carolina was to be congratulated for sending four freshmen Republican lawmakers to Congress and for electing another tea party-backed candidate, Nikki Haley, as governor.
"The tea party was all of us, all of you," she said. "For a Minnesota girl, you are a GOP paradise."
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