The Club for Growth, the influential fiscal conservative group, released a glowing review Tuesday of Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s tenure in Congress and the Minnesota state Senate, saying that the third-term lawmaker and 2012 presidential hopeful has a solid record of supporting pro-growth policies.
“With very few exceptions, Congresswoman Bachmann has supported pro-growth policies throughout her career,” said Chris Chocola, the club’s president. “She especially deserves praise for her consistent defense of school choice. After reviewing her record, we are confident that Congresswoman Bachmann would be a pro-growth president.”
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The group applauded her record on taxes, pointing to her opposition to the “death tax” on family estates, energy taxes and to tax cuts that would be offset by tax hikes.
But the group, whose endorsements have proven potent in past GOP primary contests, also noted and criticized her support as a state senator of a 75-cent per pack sales tax on cigarettes proposed by then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty, one of her rivals in the GOP presidential field, and her support of a proposal in 2002 to take a fraction of 1 percent sales tax increase to pay for “arts and the environment.”
Club for Growth officials said Mrs. Bachmann has a positive record overall on spending, including her opposition to “pork projects.” But they also say that that her record suffered in 2010 when she “sponsored or co-sponsored 21 bills to increase spending and only 3 bills to cut, for a net spending agenda of $11.7 billion on top of current spending.”
The report, which is the latest in series of “White Papers” from the anti-tax group, can be found at http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whitepapers/?subsec=137&id=922.
