Ever since she became the center of a firestorm over her comments about “anti-American” activities in Congress, Rep. Michelle Bachmann has unleashed a constant stream of jaw-dropping statements - most of them rather incomprehensible.
First came her mid-February interview about the stimulus plan: Her factually inaccurate statements and her bold declaration that “We’re running out of rich people in this country” once again attracted national headlines. Since then, Bachmann has called for a “revolution,” has reproached Obama for going “down the lane of economic Marxism,” engaged in a bizarre exchange with Timothy Geithner over the constitutionality of his actions, called herself a “foreign correspondent reporting to you from enemy lines” and asked Americans to be “armed and dangerous” over energy policy.
Now comes the most head-scratching episode: Her new-found crusade against an alleged threat to the U.S. dollar.
Some background
Earlier this week, China proposed replacing the dollar as the international reserve currency. Currently, the dollar is the dominant currency that is held by governments, institutions and central banks around the world in order to serve as a liability and stabilize the domestic currency. Worried that the weakness of the American economy will create trouble across the globe, the Chinese government proposed reducing the global financial system’s reliance on the dollar by making the International Monetary Fund’s already-existing Special Drawing Rights into the new currency reserve system.
While it is virtually impossible to imagine such a change being coordinated without Washington’s participation, this has ultimately very little to do with American policy and with America’s use of the dollar. China’s proposal concerns the policies of other countries; it is calling on them to stop piling up dollars in their reserves and turn to another currency to stabilize their economy.
Put it another way: This absolutely nothing to do with getting the United States to convert to another currency; and it has nothing to do to with any push to abolish the U.S. dollar! We are not talking about a currency that would be shared by all countries of the world (a sort of global euro) but about a reserve currency that would fulfill its international role and serve as a stabilizing back-up precisely because it is not shared by all the financial systems.
Bachmann’s crusade
Yet, Michelle Bachmann is so (inexplicably) convinced that the Chinese are proposing that America get rid of its currency that she has made this into her defining issue of the week, going as far as to propose a constitutional amendment “that would bar the dollar from being replaced by any foreign currency” and would “denounce efforts to move towards a global currency.”
One might think that Bachmann is only trying to say that the United States should not condone other countries getting away from the dollar; whatever the merits of such legislation, it would at least make sense. But that is certainly not Bachmann’s intention; the worry she is trying to address is unquestionably that the dollar might no longer be the currency used within the United States. Here is the text of the bill:
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to prohibit the President from entering into a treaty or other international agreement that would provide for the United States to adopt as legal tender in the United States a currency issued by an entity other than the United States.
Now, take a look at her remarkable radio interview with Glenn Beck:
Let me tell you, there’s something that’s happening this week in Congress that could be the eventual unravelling for our freedom.. As you know, Russia, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, many national have lined up now and called for an international currency, a One World currency. And they want to get off the dollar as the reserve currency…
What that means is that all of the countries of the world would have a single currency. We would give up the dollar as our currency and we would just go with a One World currency. And now for the first time, we’re seeing major countries like China, India, Russia, countries like that, calling for a one world currency and they want this discussion to occur at the G20… Once you lose your economic freedom, you lose your political freedom. And then we are no more, as an exceptional nation, as we always have been. So this is imperative.
Finally, here are Bachmann’s comments on Hannity’s show:
If Tim Geithner is successful under President Obama, and they move us to an international currency, then we have no hope of standing on our own as a sovereign nation with our own economic system. It’s over. We can’t do that.
Needless to say, such statements can only be the sign of a paranoid mind; Bachmann does not just believes that her political enemies are guided by false ideas or that they cling to failed policies, she also believes that the Administration is out to deliberately sell out the United States, consciously weakening it to destroy its independence and its power. This obviously ties back to Bachmann’s mid-October warnings about the “anti-American” activities of members of Congress.
Let’s briefly recap the substantial problems with Bachmann’s arguments:
- Bachmann does not seem to understand that the reserve currency is not the same thing as the currency you and I use when we go out to buy bread. That is somewhat tragic considering that those two things are very different (if a country’s reserve currency was the same as the currency people use to buy bread, how would it be a reserve at all? how could it stabilize markets and serve as a back-up?).
- Even if Bachmann understood the difference, even if she understood that we are talking about a reserve currency, her bill would make little sense: It is other countries and their central banks who would strip the dollar of its international role by taking on other currencies in their reserves; if anything, the U.S. already holds other currencies like euros and yen.
- Bachmann is not grasping the difference, and she is essentially talking about the currency used within a country. That makes things even worse: Her fear is that the dollar might be abolished altogether and that American citizens might be forced to buy their bread in “One World Currency.” (Her press release frames her bill as protecting “Title 31, Sec. 5103 USC,” which “prohibits foreign currency from being recognized in the U.S.”) Yet, as I explained above, no one is talking about a “One World Currency” that would come to replace the dollar as the United State’s currency; that has nothing to do with the current discussions.
What is truly remarkable is that Bachmann never takes a step back: The more commentators point out that her understanding is factually flawed, the more she insists that there is a conspiracy to strip the United States of its currency - just as she insisted last spring that there was an anti-American conspiracy in the halls of the United States Congress.
Bachmann might have survived the 2008 elections, but she undoubtedly remains vulnerable in upcoming cycles: MN-06 is Republican enough to accommodate an outspoken conservative, but Bachmann has made herself into more of a provocateur than a conservative - and we saw what happened to Idaho’s Bill Sali. Bachmann became such a controversial figure last fall that any comment she now makes is bound to be closely scrutinized. She survived by 3% last fall, but her opponent’s fundraising surge came too late in the cycle - not to mention that an independent candidate took 10% of the vote.
29 co-sponsors
Interestingly, Bachmann’s proposed legislation has already attracted 29 co-sponsors: Reps. Hensarling, Price, Shadegg, Kirk, Foxx, Pitts, Bartlett, McClintock, Gingrey (of Georgia), Wamp, Fallin, Fleming, Blackburn, Broun, Akin, Issa, King (of Iowa), Burton (of Indiana), Gohmert, Thompson (of Pennsylvania), Lamborn, Paul, Culberson, Biggert, Brown (of South Carolina), Jones, Posey, Roe (of Tennessee) and Conaway.
Most - though not all - of these Republicans have very conservative reputations. A few observations: Kirk represents a heavily Democratic district and is reportedly considering running for Senate in 2010; Posey just attracted headlines for introducing a bill on presidential candidates’ birth certificates…
This woman’s words and actions call for analysis not from a political commentator or strategist, but from a psychiatrist.
I believe that those who voted for that weirdo must be deeply embarassed. She makes Dennis Cucinich and Mike Gravel look like real statesmen.
Larry Sabato gave perhaps the most apropriate answer to her rants: she must take a deep breath along with a tranquilizer.
The real question is why on earth the media continue to invite her to their shows, as if they don’t give a damn about their credibility. This woman really cries for an intervention.
Michelle Bachmann (and probably glenn beck too) seems to be a believer in the John Birch Society’s conspiracy theories.
This is the idea that some secret society called the illuminati set up the United Nations for the sole purpose of converting the whole world to a communist empire which will one day be ruled by the Antichrist.
They may not exactly what they believe, but ideas like this have been going around in fringe right circles since World War I.
While the vast majority of Republicans don’t believe this idea, it does seem to link their coaliton of the Religious Right, Free Market conservatives and nationalistic neocons together since the idea of a communist, not american empire ruled by an unchristian force is what all three of those groups fear most.
Just my political science theory.
Why would she not introduce the bill? Fine replacing the dollar in the US not what anyone is proposing today, but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone did one day with the country’s current direction. What’s the harm in putting the dollar in the constitution?
We should thank Michelle for again standing up for the average guy.
She has made me proud to be a Minnesotan.
Like our former senator Paul Wellstone she is continuing his tradition of looking after and fighting the average person
and putting her constituency first.
Michelle Bachmann is becoming the new Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.
It’s time to wake up! Look at both sides before you come to any misguided conclusions. There is much more truth to these claims then most people know. The American people have been blinded. Research both sides and form your own opinion. Don’t be mislead like all the other sheep! I’m thankful that people like Michelle Bachman are finally standing up for this country and against this ridiculous administration.
After living through the Great Election Debacle of 2000, being referred to as “Floridiots” rather than “Floridians,” having our own tag on fark.com, and being advised by Steven Colbert to change our licence plates from “Sunshine State” to “Bat-Sh*t-Crazy State,” I can now say with conviction, “Thank G*d for Minnesota.” They make us look completely rational and stable. I mean, they STILL can’t make up their minds between a comedian and some other guy.
It looks like Bachmann has her groupies and they’ve found this blog.
Joe,
Her office probably had them log in to post. All three of them.
There’s always conspiracy nuts who will believe anything they’re told. I grew up in the hometown of the Flat Earth Society. Yep, there is such a thing.
How misguided are the people on this blog who think that the people who are disagreeing with them are so called “groupies” If you have an opinion that differs from theirs your some kind of nut. If you would branch out beyond your own narrow mind set and talk to a broad range of people with many different backgrounds and political views,you would realize that the people disagreeing with you that you assume are in the minority are actually the majority.
Liz - I have looked at the evidence and Taniel was correct in his analysis. The US has no real control over whether the Dollar is the reserve currency of the world. No-one of any importance is saying the dollar should not stay as the currency of the US. If there is any evidence that they have suggested such things then please provide the evidence.
Paul Wellstone was a serious, hard working Senator who cared about people. Bachmann is nothing like Wellstone and anyone who thinks so tarnishes Wellstone’s well deserved reputation. He never dabbled in conspiracy theory.
Liz - you say people on here (regular commentators rather than groupies and nuts like yourself) shouldn`t think the minority is a majority etc. Do 51% of Americans think the US Dollar is in danger of being replaced? Please provide any evidence of that.
None of this changes the fact that Michele Bachmann has some serious issues.
There 29 co-sponsors and you ownly write about Michelle Bachmann’s comments/position on this issue. Michelle Bachmann whether you agree or not with her is not alone on this issue..
People can argue for this one world currency all they want. I only hope it doesnt happen. It is paving the way for something horribly wicked. First comes the currency, then the order,then the religion, the beast and finally the return of Christ. Good going Leaders of men, your being used like the whores you are.
Dan, that’s the whole point: No one is arguing in favor of a world currency.
There’s too much confusion over what is being proposed by other world nations.
Bachmann and some of you don’t understand the difference between our domestic legal tender and a reserve currency. The dollar is not going away as the domestic currency. Bachmann and Beck are stupid in the way they have presented the issue.
Do your homework. Since the Bretton Woods Treaty after World War II, the dollar has been the reserve currency of the world. We have enjoyed immense power because every major central bank has to hold dollars. All major commodities such as oil are predominantly traded in US dollars. This immense power was once curtailed by the ability of creditors to the US to be able to demand payment on debts with Gold. Imagine today owing the Asians trillions of dollars in Gold instead of dollars! President Nixon “shut the gold window” in the early 70’s. Ever since then, the dollar’s stability has been increasingly put into question as the world’s *RESERVE* currency.
The reserve status of the dollar is changing. We’re probably going to a monetary instrument called a “Special Drawing Right”, a monetary unit sponsored by the IMF. SDRs were created in the 60’s. They consist of a basket of currencies.
If the world goes to SDRs as the reserve currency, the economic power of the US in the global economy *will* decrease.
While it’s not a conspiracy, the prospect of the dollar losing its “reserve status” is daunting. You can thank every President since Nixon for the debt added to our balance sheets funded by other nations. That’s the reason we’re in this mess, and that’s the reason there’s no way out. We will be forced to adopt a new world reserve currency.
But in our wallets: There will still be good ‘ol US dollars.
Good day! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying Bachmann’s crusade against “One World Currency” at Campaign Diaries and look forward to new posts…