Michele Bachmann's Plan to Fix the Economy
Paul Bedard

Rep. Michele Bachmann, the spotlight-grabbing Tea Party leader in the House, has spent months pushing for changes to the tax code and federal spending to bring the deficit into line and now that she's in the majority party, she believes that those goals are finally "achievable." In remarks she was to give to the annual American Spectator Robert L. Bartley Dinner this week before she fell ill, Bachmann said is time to get going on her agenda, many elements of which there is support among Republicans in the House and Senate.

"Over the past few months," she said in her prepared remarks, "we've only been able to speak of these goals in the theoretical. They were a wish list. Now, certainty in the marketplace, smaller and limited government, lower and fewer taxes, the freedom to succeed are achievable." Former Indiana Rep. David McIntosh read her remarks to a crowd that included Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele and T. Boone Pickens.

When put side by side with the new deficit commission's plan to slash spending, hike taxes and end the mortgage deduction, Bachmann's plan is even more attractive to conservatives.

"Our challenge as leaders is to show our fellow citizens a clear road ahead, to define a path that will remove the uncertainty and the unpredictability that has prolonged the economic stagnation we've been saddled with, to grow our economy and jobs, cut spending and shrink the size of government, support our troops who defend our freedom, and restore our nation to its rightful position as the leader of the free work," she said. And this is how she'd do it.

Michele Bachmann's 10-Point Economic Fix-It Plan

1. Cut federal spending 25 percent, the amount she says spending has increased under President Obama.

2. Pass the "mother of all repeal bills" that will kill the Democrat's healthcare reform and regulations.

3. Get the federal government out of the bailout business, especially when it comes to Wall Street and pension plans.

4. End involvement in semi-private businesses like Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae.

5. Make all the Bush tax cuts permanent.

6. Cut the corporate tax rate of 34 percent to "single digits" to spur growth and job creation.

7. Kill capital gains taxes.

8. Zero out the death tax.

9. Cap personal income taxes at 20 percent.

10. Propose a "flatter tax" and a tax code no longer than 50-pages "double spaced, with a font size no smaller than 9-point. My guess is that even some of my Democratic colleagues would be able to read that bill."

Michele Bachmann's Plan to Fix the Economy

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